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The History of Herodotus
By Herodotus
Translated by George Rawlinson
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BOOK I
Clio
These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes,
in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what
men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of
the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory;
and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feuds. According
to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began to
quarrel. This people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the
Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in
the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure
on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt
and Assyria. They landed at many places on the coast, and among the
rest at Argos, which was then preeminent above all the states included
now under the common name of Hellas. Here they exposed their merchandise,
and traded with the natives for five or six days; at the end of which
time, when almost everything was sold, there came down to the beach
a number of women, and among them the daughter of the king, who was,
they say, agreeing in this with the Greeks, Io, the child of Inachus.
The women were standing by the stern of the ship intent upon their
purchases, when the Phoenicians, with a general shout, rushed upon
them. The greater part made their escape, but some were seized and
carried off. Io herself was among the captives. The Phoenicians put
the women on board their vessel, and set sail for Egypt. Thus did
Io pass into Egypt, according to the Persian story, which differs
widely from the Phoenician: and thus commenced, according to their
authors, the series of outrages.
At a later period, certain Greeks, with whose name they are unacquainted,
but who would probably be Cretans, made a landing at Tyre, on the
Phoenician coast, and bore off the king's daughter, Europe. In this
they only retaliated; but afterwards the Greeks, they say, were guilty
of a second violence. They manned a ship of war, and sailed to Aea,
a city of Colchis, on the river Phasis; from whence, after despatching
the rest of the business on which they had come, they carried off
Medea, the daughter of the king of the land. The monarch sent a herald
into Greece to demand reparation of the wrong, and the restitution
of his child; but the Greeks made answer that, having received no
reparation of the wrong done them in the seizure of Io the Argive,
they should give none in this instance.
In the next generation afterwards, according to the same authorities,
Alexander the son of Priam, bearing these events in mind, resolved
to procure himself a wife out of Greece by violence, fully persuaded,
that as the Greeks had not given satisfaction for their outrages,
so neither would he be forced to make any for his. Accordingly he
made prize of Helen; upon which the Greeks decided that, before resorting
to other measures, they would send envoys to reclaim the princess
and require reparation of the wrong. Their demands were met by a reference
to the violence which had been offered to Medea, and they were asked
with what face they could now require satisfaction, when they had
formerly rejected all demands for either reparation or restitution
addressed to them.
Hitherto the injuries on either side had been mere acts of common
violence; but in what followed the Persians consider that the Greeks
were greatly to blame, since before any attack had been made on Europe,
they led an army into Asia. Now as for the carrying off of women,
it is the deed, they say, of a rogue: but to make a stir about such
as are carried off, argues a man a fool. Men of sense care nothing
for such women, since it is plain that without their own consent they
would never be forced away. The Asiatics, when the Greeks ran off
with their women, never troubled themselves about the matter; but
the Greeks, for the sake of a single Lacedaemonian girl, collected
a vast armament, invaded Asia, and destroyed the kingdom of Priam.
Henceforth they ever looked upon the Greeks as their open enemies.
For Asia, with all the various tribes of barbarians that inhabit it,
is regarded by the Persians as their own; but Europe and the Greek
race they look on as distinct and separate.
Such is the account which the Persians give of these matters. They
trace to the attack upon Troy their ancient enmity towards the Greeks.
The Phoenicians, however, as regards Io, vary from the Persian statements.
They deny that they used any violence to remove her into Egypt; she
herself, they say, having formed an intimacy with the captain, while
his vessel lay at Argos, and perceiving herself to be with child,
of her own free will accompanied the Phoenicians on their leaving
the shore, to escape the shame of detection and the reproaches of
her parents. Whether this latter account be true, or whether the matter
happened otherwise, I shall not discuss further. I shall proceed at
once to point out the person who first within my own knowledge inflicted
injury on the Greeks, after which I shall go forward with my history,
describing equally the greater and the lesser cities. For the cities
which were formerly great have most of them become insignificant;
and such as are at present powerful, were weak in the olden time.
I shall therefore discourse equally of both, convinced that human
happiness never continues long in one stay.
Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, was lord of all the nations
to the west of the river Halys. This stream, which separates Syria
from Paphlagonia, runs with a course from south to north, and finally
falls into the Euxine. So far as our knowledge goes, he was the first
of the barbarians who had dealings with the Greeks, forcing some of
them to become his tributaries, and entering into alliance with others.
He conquered the Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians of Asia, and made
a treaty with the Lacedaemonians. Up to that time all Greeks had been
free. For the Cimmerian attack upon Ionia, which was earlier than
Croesus, was not a conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for
plundering.
The sovereignty of Lydia, which had belonged to the Heraclides, passed
into the family of Croesus, who were called the Mermnadae, in the
manner which I will now relate. There was a certain king of Sardis,
Candaules by name, whom the Greeks called Myrsilus. He was a descendant
of Alcaeus, son of Hercules. The first king of this dynasty was Agron,
son of Ninus, grandson of Belus, and great-grandson of Alcaeus; Candaules,
son of Myrsus, was the last. The kings who reigned before Agron sprang
from Lydus, son of Atys, from whom the people of the land, called
previously Meonians, received the name of Lydians. The Heraclides,
descended from Hercules and the slave-girl of Jardanus, having been
entrusted by these princes with the management of affairs, obtained
the kingdom by an oracle. Their rule endured for two and twenty generations
of men, a space of five hundred and five years; during the whole of
which period, from Agron to Candaules, the crown descended in the
direct line from father to son.
Now it happened that this Candaules was in love with his own wife;
and not only so, but thought her the fairest woman in the whole world.
This fancy had strange consequences. There was in his bodyguard a
man whom he specially favoured, Gyges, the son of Dascylus. All affairs
of greatest moment were entrusted by Candaules to this person, and
to him he was wont to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife. So
matters went on for a while. At length, one day, Candaules, who was
fated to end ill, thus addressed his follower: "I see thou dost not
credit what I tell thee of my lady's loveliness; but come now, since
men's ears are less credulous than their eyes, contrive some means
whereby thou mayst behold her naked." At this the other loudly exclaimed,
saying, "What most unwise speech is this, master, which thou hast
uttered? Wouldst thou have me behold my mistress when she is naked?
Bethink thee that a woman, with her clothes, puts off her bashfulness.
Our fathers, in time past, distinguished right and wrong plainly enough,
and it is our wisdom to submit to be taught by them. There is an old
saying, 'Let each look on his own.' I hold thy wife for the fairest
of all womankind. Only, I beseech thee, ask me not to do wickedly."
Gyges thus endeavoured to decline the king's proposal, trembling lest
some dreadful evil should befall him through it. But the king replied
to him, "Courage, friend; suspect me not of the design to prove thee
by this discourse; nor dread thy mistress, lest mischief be. thee
at her hands. Be sure I will so manage that she shall not even know
that thou hast looked upon her. I will place thee behind the open
door of the chamber in which we sleep. When I enter to go to rest
she will follow me. There stands a chair close to the entrance, on
which she will lay her clothes one by one as she takes them off. Thou
wilt be able thus at thy leisure to peruse her person. Then, when
she is moving from the chair toward the bed, and her back is turned
on thee, be it thy care that she see thee not as thou passest through
the doorway."
Gyges, unable to escape, could but declare his readiness. Then Candaules,
when bedtime came, led Gyges into his sleeping-chamber, and a moment
after the queen followed. She entered, and laid her garments on the
chair, and Gyges gazed on her. After a while she moved toward the
bed, and her back being then turned, he glided stealthily from the
apartment. As he was passing out, however, she saw him, and instantly
divining what had happened, she neither screamed as her shame impelled
her, nor even appeared to have noticed aught, purposing to take vengeance
upon the husband who had so affronted her. For among the Lydians,
and indeed among the barbarians generally, it is reckoned a deep disgrace,
even to a man, to be seen naked.
No sound or sign of intelligence escaped her at the time. But in the
morning, as soon as day broke, she hastened to choose from among her
retinue such as she knew to be most faithful to her, and preparing
them for what was to ensue, summoned Gyges into her presence. Now
it had often happened before that the queen had desired to confer
with him, and he was accustomed to come to her at her call. He therefore
obeyed the summons, not suspecting that she knew aught of what had
occurred. Then she addressed these words to him: "Take thy choice,
Gyges, of two courses which are open to thee. Slay Candaules, and
thereby become my lord, and obtain the Lydian throne, or die this
moment in his room. So wilt thou not again, obeying all behests of
thy master, behold what is not lawful for thee. It must needs be that
either he perish by whose counsel this thing was done, or thou, who
sawest me naked, and so didst break our usages." At these words Gyges
stood awhile in mute astonishment; recovering after a time, he earnestly
besought the queen that she would not compel him to so hard a choice.
But finding he implored in vain, and that necessity was indeed laid
on him to kill or to be killed, he made choice of life for himself,
and replied by this inquiry: "If it must be so, and thou compellest
me against my will to put my lord to death, come, let me hear how
thou wilt have me set on him." "Let him be attacked," she answered,
"on the spot where I was by him shown naked to you, and let the assault
be made when he is asleep."
All was then prepared for the attack, and when night fell, Gyges,
seeing that he had no retreat or escape, but must absolutely either
slay Candaules, or himself be slain, followed his mistress into the
sleeping-room. She placed a dagger in his hand and hid him carefully
behind the self-same door. Then Gyges, when the king was fallen asleep,
entered privily into the chamber and struck him dead. Thus did the
wife and kingdom of Candaules pass into the possession of Gyges, of
whom Archilochus the Parian, who lived about the same time, made mention
in a poem written in iambic trimeter verse.
Gyges was afterwards confirmed in the possession of the throne by
an answer of the Delphic oracle. Enraged at the murder of their king,
the people flew to arms, but after a while the partisans of Gyges
came to terms with them, and it was agreed that if the Delphic oracle
declared him king of the Lydians, he should reign; if otherwise, he
should yield the throne to the Heraclides. As the oracle was given
in his favour he became king. The Pythoness, however, added that,
in the fifth generation from Gyges, vengeance should come for the
Heraclides; a prophecy of which neither the Lydians nor their princes
took any account till it was fulfilled. Such was the way in which
the Mermnadae deposed the Heraclides, and themselves obtained the
sovereignty.
When Gyges was established on the throne, he sent no small presents
to Delphi, as his many silver offerings at the Delphic shrine testify.
Besides this silver he gave a vast number of vessels of gold, among
which the most worthy of mention are the goblets, six in number, and
weighing altogether thirty talents, which stand in the Corinthian
treasury, dedicated by him. I call it the Corinthian treasury, though
in strictness of speech it is the treasury not of the whole Corinthian
people, but of Cypselus, son of Eetion. Excepting Midas, son of Gordias,
king of Phrygia, Gyges was the first of the barbarians whom we know
to have sent offerings to Delphi. Midas dedicated the royal throne
whereon he was accustomed to sit and administer justice, an object
well worth looking at. It lies in the same place as the goblets presented
by Gyges. The Delphians call the whole of the silver and the gold
which Gyges dedicated, after the name of the donor, Gygian.
As soon as Gyges was king he made an in-road on Miletus and Smyrna,
and took the city of Colophon. Afterwards, however, though he reigned
eight and thirty years, he did not perform a single noble exploit.
I shall therefore make no further mention of him, but pass on to his
son and successor in the kingdom, Ardys.
Ardys took Priene and made war upon Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians,
driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and
captured Sardis, all but the citadel. He reigned forty-nine years,
and was succeeded by his son, Sadyattes, who reigned twelve years.
At his death his son Alyattes mounted the throne.
This prince waged war with the Medes under Cyaxares, the grandson
of Deioces, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered Smyrna, the
Colophonian colony, and invaded Clazomenae. From this last contest
he did not come off as he could have wished, but met with a sore defeat;
still, however, in the course of his reign, he performed other actions
very worthy of note, of which I will now proceed to give an account.
Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians, he pressed the
siege against the city by attacking it in the following manner. When
the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched his army into Milesia
to the sound of pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and feminine.
The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled
down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them
standing as they were. He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed
all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then returned
to his own dominions. It was idle for his army to sit down before
the place, as the Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason that
he did not demolish their buildings was that the inhabitants might
be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forth to sow
and till their lands; and so each time that he invaded the country
he might find something to plunder.
In this way he carried on the war with the Milesians for eleven years,
in the course of which he inflicted on them two terrible blows; one
in their own country in the district of Limeneium, the other in the
plain of the Maeander. During six of these eleven years, Sadyattes,
the son of Ardys who first lighted the flames of this war, was king
of Lydia, and made the incursions. Only the five following years belong
to the reign of Alyattes, son of Sadyattes, who (as I said before)
inheriting the war from his father, applied himself to it unremittingly.
The Milesians throughout the contest received no help at all from
any of the Ionians, excepting those of Chios, who lent them troops
in requital of a like service rendered them in former times, the Milesians
having fought on the side of the Chians during the whole of the war
between them and the people of Erythrae.
It was in the twelfth year of the war that the following mischance
occurred from the firing of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn
been set alight by the soldiers when a violent wind carried the flames
against the temple of Minerva Assesia, which caught fire and was burnt
to the ground. At the time no one made any account of the circumstance;
but afterwards, on the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes fell
sick. His illness continued, whereupon, either advised thereto by
some friend, or perchance himself conceiving the idea, he sent messengers
to Delphi to inquire of the god concerning his malady. On their arrival
the Pythoness declared that no answer should be given them until they
had rebuilt the temple of Minerva, burnt by the Lydians at Assesus
in Milesia.
Thus much I know from information given me by the Delphians; the remainder
of the story the Milesians add.
The answer made by the oracle came to the ears of Periander, son of
Cypselus, who was a very close friend to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus
at that period. He instantly despatched a messenger to report the
oracle to him, in order that Thrasybulus, forewarned of its tenor,
might the better adapt his measures to the posture of affairs.
Alyattes, the moment that the words of the oracle were reported to
him, sent a herald to Miletus in hopes of concluding a truce with
Thrasybulus and the Milesians for such a time as was needed to rebuild
the temple. The herald went upon his way; but meantime Thrasybulus
had been apprised of everything; and conjecturing what Alyattes would
do, he contrived this artifice. He had all the corn that was in the
city, whether belonging to himself or to private persons, brought
into the market-place, and issued an order that the Milesians should
hold themselves in readiness, and, when he gave the signal, should,
one and all, fall to drinking and revelry.
The purpose for which he gave these orders was the following. He hoped
that the Sardian herald, seeing so great store of corn upon the ground,
and all the city given up to festivity, would inform Alyattes of it,
which fell out as he anticipated. The herald observed the whole, and
when he had delivered his message, went back to Sardis. This circumstance
alone, as I gather, brought about the peace which ensued. Alyattes,
who had hoped that there was now a great scarcity of corn in Miletus,
and that the people were worn down to the last pitch of suffering,
when he heard from the herald on his return from Miletus tidings so
contrary to those he had expected, made a treaty with the enemy by
which the two nations became close friends and allies. He then built
at Assesus two temples to Minerva instead of one, and shortly after
recovered from his malady. Such were the chief circumstances of the
war which Alyattes waged with Thrasybulus and the Milesians.
This Periander, who apprised Thrasybulus of the oracle, was son of
Cypselus, and tyrant of Corinth. In his time a very wonderful thing
is said to have happened. The Corinthians and the Lesbians agree in
their account of the matter. They relate that Arion of Methymna, who
as a player on the harp, was second to no man living at that time,
and who was, so far as we know, the first to invent the dithyrambic
measure, to give it its name, and to recite in it at Corinth, was
carried to Taenarum on the back of a dolphin.
He had lived for many years at the court of Periander, when a longing
came upon him to sail across to Italy and Sicily. Having made rich
profits in those parts, he wanted to recross the seas to Corinth.
He therefore hired a vessel, the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking
that there was no people in whom he could more safely confide; and,
going on board, he set sail from Tarentum. The sailors, however, when
they reached the open sea, formed a plot to throw him overboard and
seize upon his riches. Discovering their design, he fell on his knees,
beseeching them to spare his life, and making them welcome to his
money. But they refused; and required him either to kill himself outright,
if he wished for a grave on the dry land, or without loss of time
to leap overboard into the sea. In this strait Arion begged them,
since such was their pleasure, to allow him to mount upon the quarter-deck,
dressed in his full costume, and there to play and sing, and promising
that, as soon as his song was ended, he would destroy himself. Delighted
at the prospect of hearing the very best harper in the world, they
consented, and withdrew from the stern to the middle of the vessel:
while Arion dressed himself in the full costume of his calling, took
his harp, and standing on the quarter-deck, chanted the Orthian. His
strain ended, he flung himself, fully attired as he was, headlong
into the sea. The Corinthians then sailed on to Corinth. As for Arion,
a dolphin, they say, took him upon his back and carried him to Taenarum,
where he went ashore, and thence proceeded to Corinth in his musician's
dress, and told all that had happened to him. Periander, however,
disbelieved the story, and put Arion in ward, to prevent his leaving
Corinth, while he watched anxiously for the return of the mariners.
On their arrival he summoned them before him and asked them if they
could give him any tiding of Arion. They returned for answer that
he was alive and in good health in Italy, and that they had left him
at Tarentum, where he was doing well. Thereupon Arion appeared before
them, just as he was when he jumped from the vessel: the men, astonished
and detected in falsehood, could no longer deny their guilt. Such
is the account which the Corinthians and Lesbians give; and there
is to this day at Taenarum, an offering of Arion's at the shrine,
which is a small figure in bronze, representing a man seated upon
a dolphin.
Having brought the war with the Milesians to a close, and reigned
over the land of Lydia for fifty-seven years, Alyattes died. He was
the second prince of his house who made offerings at Delphi. His gifts,
which he sent on recovering from his sickness, were a great bowl of
pure silver, with a salver in steel curiously inlaid, a work among
all the offerings at Delphi the best worth looking at. Glaucus, the
Chian, made it, the man who first invented the art of inlaying steel.
On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his son, who was thirty-five years
old, succeeded to the throne. Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was the
first that he attacked. The Ephesians, when he laid siege to the place,
made an offering of their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from
the town wall to the temple of the goddess, which was distant from
the ancient city, then besieged by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs.
They were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he attacked. Afterwards,
on some pretext or other, he made war in turn upon every Ionian and
Aeolian state, bringing forward, where he could, a substantial ground
of complaint; where such failed him, advancing some poor excuse.
In this way he made himself master of all the Greek cities in Asia,
and forced them to become his tributaries; after which he began to
think of building ships, and attacking the islanders. Everything had
been got ready for this purpose, when Bias of Priene (or, as some
say, Pittacus the Mytilenean) put a stop to the project. The king
had made inquiry of this person, who was lately arrived at Sardis,
if there were any news from Greece; to which he answered, "Yes, sire,
the islanders are gathering ten thousand horse, designing an expedition
against thee and against thy capital." Croesus, thinking he spake
seriously, broke out, "Ah, might the gods put such a thought into
their minds as to attack the sons of the Lydians with cavalry!" "It
seems, oh! king," rejoined the other, "that thou desirest earnestly
to catch the islanders on horseback upon the mainland,- thou knowest
well what would come of it. But what thinkest thou the islanders desire
better, now that they hear thou art about to build ships and sail
against them, than to catch the Lydians at sea, and there revenge
on them the wrongs of their brothers upon the mainland, whom thou
holdest in slavery?" Croesus was charmed with the turn of the speech;
and thinking there was reason in what was said, gave up his ship-building
and concluded a league of amity with the Ionians of the isles.
Croesus afterwards, in the course of many years, brought under his
sway almost all the nations to the west of the Halys. The Lycians
and Cilicians alone continued free; all the other tribes he reduced
and held in subjection. They were the following: the Lydians, Phrygians,
Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybians, Paphlagonians, Thynian and Bithynian
Thracians, Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians and Pamphylians.
When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian empire, and
the prosperity of Sardis was now at its height, there came thither,
one after another, all the sages of Greece living at the time, and
among them Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels, having left
Athens to be absent ten years, under the pretence of wishing to see
the world, but really to avoid being forced to repeal any of the laws
which, at the request of the Athenians, he had made for them. Without
his sanction the Athenians could not repeal them, as they had bound
themselves under a heavy curse to be governed for ten years by the
laws which should be imposed on them by Solon.
On this account, as well as to see the world, Solon set out upon his
travels, in the course of which he went to Egypt to the court of Amasis,
and also came on a visit to Croesus at Sardis. Croesus received him
as his guest, and lodged him in the royal palace. On the third or
fourth day after, he bade his servants conduct Solon. over his treasuries,
and show him all their greatness and magnificence. When he had seen
them all, and, so far as time allowed, inspected them, Croesus addressed
this question to him. "Stranger of Athens, we have heard much of thy
wisdom and of thy travels through many lands, from love of knowledge
and a wish to see the world. I am curious therefore to inquire of
thee, whom, of all the men that thou hast seen, thou deemest the most
happy?" This he asked because he thought himself the happiest of mortals:
but Solon answered him without flattery, according to his true sentiments,
"Tellus of Athens, sire." Full of astonishment at what he heard, Croesus
demanded sharply, "And wherefore dost thou deem Tellus happiest?"
To which the other replied, "First, because his country was flourishing
in his days, and he himself had sons both beautiful and good, and
he lived to see children born to each of them, and these children
all grew up; and further because, after a life spent in what our people
look upon as comfort, his end was surpassingly glorious. In a battle
between the Athenians and their neighbours near Eleusis, he came to
the assistance of his countrymen, routed the foe, and died upon the
field most gallantly. The Athenians gave him a public funeral on the
spot where he fell, and paid him the highest honours."
Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus, enumerating
the manifold particulars of his happiness. When he had ended, Croesus
inquired a second time, who after Tellus seemed to him the happiest,
expecting that at any rate, he would be given the second place. "Cleobis
and Bito," Solon answered; "they were of Argive race; their fortune
was enough for their wants, and they were besides endowed with so
much bodily strength that they had both gained prizes at the Games.
Also this tale is told of them:- There was a great festival in honour
of the goddess Juno at Argos, to which their mother must needs be
taken in a car. Now the oxen did not come home from the field in time:
so the youths, fearful of being too late, put the yoke on their own
necks, and themselves drew the car in which their mother rode. Five
and forty furlongs did they draw her, and stopped before the temple.
This deed of theirs was witnessed by the whole assembly of worshippers,
and then their life closed in the best possible way. Herein, too,
God showed forth most evidently, how much better a thing for man death
is than life. For the Argive men, who stood around the car, extolled
the vast strength of the youths; and the Argive women extolled the
mother who was blessed with such a pair of sons; and the mother herself,
overjoyed at the deed and at the praises it had won, standing straight
before the image, besought the goddess to bestow on Cleobis and Bito,
the sons who had so mightily honoured her, the highest blessing to
which mortals can attain. Her prayer ended, they offered sacrifice
and partook of the holy banquet, after which the two youths fell asleep
in the temple. They never woke more, but so passed from the earth.
The Argives, looking on them as among the best of men, caused statues
of them to be made, which they gave to the shrine at Delphi."
When Solon had thus assigned these youths the second place, Croesus
broke in angrily, "What, stranger of Athens, is my happiness, then,
so utterly set at nought by thee, that thou dost not even put me on
a level with private men?"
"Oh! Croesus," replied the other, "thou askedst a question concerning
the condition of man, of one who knows that the power above us is
full of jealousy, and fond of troubling our lot. A long life gives
one to witness much, and experience much oneself, that one would not
choose. Seventy years I regard as the limit of the life of man. In
these seventy years are contained, without reckoning intercalary months,
twenty-five thousand and two hundred days. Add an intercalary month
to every other year, that the seasons may come round at the right
time, and there will be, besides the seventy years, thirty-five such
months, making an addition of one thousand and fifty days. The whole
number of the days contained in the seventy years will thus be twenty-six
thousand two hundred and fifty, whereof not one but will produce events
unlike the rest. Hence man is wholly accident. For thyself, oh! Croesus,
I see that thou art wonderfully rich, and art the lord of many nations;
but with respect to that whereon thou questionest me, I have no answer
to give, until I hear that thou hast closed thy life happily. For
assuredly he who possesses great store of riches is no nearer happiness
than he who has what suffices for his daily needs, unless it so hap
that luck attend upon him, and so he continue in the enjoyment of
all his good things to the end of life. For many of the wealthiest
men have been unfavoured of fortune, and many whose means were moderate
have had excellent luck. Men of the former class excel those of the
latter but in two respects; these last excel the former in many. The
wealthy man is better able to content his desires, and to bear up
against a sudden buffet of calamity. The other has less ability to
withstand these evils (from which, however, his good luck keeps him
clear), but he enjoys all these following blessings: he is whole of
limb, a stranger to disease, free from misfortune, happy in his children,
and comely to look upon. If, in addition to all this, he end his life
well, he is of a truth the man of whom thou art in search, the man
who may rightly be termed happy. Call him, however, until he die,
not happy but fortunate. Scarcely, indeed, can any man unite all these
advantages: as there is no country which contains within it all that
it needs, but each, while it possesses some things, lacks others,
and the best country is that which contains the most; so no single
human being is complete in every respect- something is always lacking.
He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and retaining them
to the day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire,
is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of 'happy.' But in every
matter it behoves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes God gives
men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin."
Such was the speech which Solon addressed to Croesus, a speech which
brought him neither largess nor honour. The king saw him depart with
much indifference, since he thought that a man must be an arrant fool
who made no account of present good, but bade men always wait and
mark the end.
After Solon had gone away a dreadful vengeance, sent of God, came
upon Croesus, to punish him, it is likely, for deeming himself the
happiest of men. First he had a dream in the night, which foreshowed
him truly the evils that were about to befall him in the person of
his son. For Croesus had two sons, one blasted by a natural defect,
being deaf and dumb; the other, distinguished far above all his co-mates
in every pursuit. The name of the last was Atys. It was this son concerning
whom he dreamt a dream that he would die by the blow of an iron weapon.
When he woke, he considered earnestly with himself, and, greatly alarmed
at the dream, instantly made his son take a wife, and whereas in former
years the youth had been wont to command the Lydian forces in the
field, he now would not suffer him to accompany them. All the spears
and javelins, and weapons used in the wars, he removed out of the
male apartments, and laid them in heaps in the chambers of the women,
fearing lest perhaps one of the weapons that hung against the wall
might fall and strike him.
Now it chanced that while he was making arrangements for the wedding,
there came to Sardis a man under a misfortune, who had upon him the
stain of blood. He was by race a Phrygian, and belonged to the family
of the king. Presenting himself at the palace of Croesus, he prayed
to be admitted to purification according to the customs of the country.
Now the Lydian method of purifying is very nearly the same as the
Greek. Croesus granted the request, and went through all the customary
rites, after which he asked the suppliant of his birth and country,
addressing him as follows:- "Who art thou, stranger, and from what
part of Phrygia fleddest thou to take refuge at my hearth? And whom,
moreover, what man or what woman, hast thou slain?" "Oh! king," replied
the Phrygian, "I am the son of Gordias, son of Midas. I am named Adrastus.
The man I unintentionally slew was my own brother. For this my father
drove me from the land, and I lost all. Then fled I here to thee."
"Thou art the offspring," Croesus rejoined, "of a house friendly to
mine, and thou art come to friends. Thou shalt want for nothing so
long as thou abidest in my dominions. Bear thy misfortune as easily
as thou mayest, so will it go best with thee." Thenceforth Adrastus
lived in the palace of the king.
It chanced that at this very same time there was in the Mysian Olympus
a huge monster of a boar, which went forth often from this mountain
country, and wasted the corn-fields of the Mysians. Many a time had
the Mysians collected to hunt the beast, but instead of doing him
any hurt, they came off always with some loss to themselves. At length
they sent ambassadors to Croesus, who delivered their message to him
in these words: "Oh! king, a mighty monster of a boar has appeared
in our parts, and destroys the labour of our hands. We do our best
to take him, but in vain. Now therefore we beseech thee to let thy
son accompany us back, with some chosen youths and hounds, that we
may rid our country of the animal." Such was the tenor of their prayer.
But Croesus bethought him of his dream, and answered, "Say no more
of my son going with you; that may not be in any wise. He is but just
joined in wedlock, and is busy enough with that. I will grant you
a picked band of Lydians, and all my huntsmen and hounds; and I will
charge those whom I send to use all zeal in aiding you to rid your
country of the brute."
With this reply the Mysians were content; but the king's son, hearing
what the prayer of the Mysians was, came suddenly in, and on the refusal
of Croesus to let him go with them, thus addressed his father: "Formerly,
my father, it was deemed the noblest and most suitable thing for me
to frequent the wars and hunting-parties, and win myself glory in
them; but now thou keepest me away from both, although thou hast never
beheld in me either cowardice or lack of spirit. What face meanwhile
must I wear as I walk to the forum or return from it? What must the
citizens, what must my young bride think of me? What sort of man will
she suppose her husband to be? Either, therefore, let me go to the
chase of this boar, or give me a reason why it is best for me to do
according to thy wishes."
Then Croesus answered, "My son, it is not because I have seen in thee
either cowardice or aught else which has displeased me that I keep
thee back; but because a vision which came before me in a dream as
I slept, warned me that thou wert doomed to die young, pierced by
an iron weapon. It was this which first led me to hasten on thy wedding,
and now it hinders me from sending thee upon this enterprise. Fain
would I keep watch over thee, if by any means I may cheat fate of
thee during my own lifetime. For thou art the one and only son that
I possess; the other, whose hearing is destroyed, I regard as if he
were not."
"Ah! father," returned the youth, "I blame thee not for keeping watch
over me after a dream so terrible; but if thou mistakest, if thou
dost not apprehend the dream aright, 'tis no blame for me to show
thee wherein thou errest. Now the dream, thou saidst thyself, foretold
that I should die stricken by an iron weapon. But what hands has a
boar to strike with? What iron weapon does he wield? Yet this is what
thou fearest for me. Had the dream said that I should die pierced
by a tusk, then thou hadst done well to keep me away; but it said
a weapon. Now here we do not combat men, but a wild animal. I pray
thee, therefore, let me go with them."
"There thou hast me, my son," said Croesus, "thy interpretation is
better than mine. I yield to it, and change my mind, and consent to
let thee go."
Then the king sent for Adrastus, the Phrygian, and said to him, "Adrastus,
when thou wert smitten with the rod of affliction- no reproach, my
friend- I purified thee, and have taken thee to live with me in my
palace, and have been at every charge. Now, therefore, it behoves
thee to requite the good offices which thou hast received at my hands
by consenting to go with my son on this hunting party, and to watch
over him, if perchance you should be attacked upon the road by some
band of daring robbers. Even apart from this, it were right for thee
to go where thou mayest make thyself famous by noble deeds. They are
the heritage of thy family, and thou too art so stalwart and strong."
Adrastus answered, "Except for thy request, Oh! king, I would rather
have kept away from this hunt; for methinks it ill beseems a man under
a misfortune such as mine to consort with his happier compeers; and
besides, I have no heart to it. On many grounds I had stayed behind;
but, as thou urgest it, and I am bound to pleasure thee (for truly
it does behove me to requite thy good offices), I am content to do
as thou wishest. For thy son, whom thou givest into my charge, be
sure thou shalt receive him back safe and sound, so far as depends
upon a guardian's carefulness."
Thus assured, Croesus let them depart, accompanied by a band of picked
youths, and well provided with dogs of chase. When they reached Olympus,
they scattered in quest of the animal; he was soon found, and the
hunters, drawing round him in a circle, hurled their weapons at him.
Then the stranger, the man who had been purified of blood, whose name
was Adrastus, he also hurled his spear at the boar, but missed his
aim, and struck Atys. Thus was the son of Croesus slain by the point
of an iron weapon, and the warning of the vision was fulfilled. Then
one ran to Sardis to bear the tidings to the king, and he came and
informed him of the combat and of the fate that had befallen his son.
If it was a heavy blow to the father to learn that his child was dead,
it yet more strongly affected him to think that the very man whom
he himself once purified had done the deed. In the violence of his
grief he called aloud on Jupiter Catharsius to be a witness of what
he had suffered at the stranger's hands. Afterwards he invoked the
same god as Jupiter Ephistius and Hetaereus- using the one term because
he had unwittingly harboured in his house the man who had now slain
his son; and the other, because the stranger, who had been sent as
his child's guardian, had turned out his most cruel enemy.
Presently the Lydians arrived, bearing the body of the youth, and
behind them followed the homicide. He took his stand in front of the
corse, and, stretching forth his hands to Croesus, delivered himself
into his power with earnest entreaties that he would sacrifice him
upon the body of his son- "his former misfortune was burthen enough;
now that he had added to it a second, and had brought ruin on the
man who purified him, he could not bear to live." Then Croesus, when
he heard these words, was moved with pity towards Adrastus, notwithstanding
the bitterness of his own calamity; and so he answered, "Enough, my
friend; I have all the revenge that I require, since thou givest sentence
of death against thyself. But in sooth it is not thou who hast injured
me, except so far as thou hast unwittingly dealt the blow. Some god
is the author of my misfortune, and I was forewarned of it a long
time ago." Croesus after this buried the body of his son, with such
honours as befitted the occasion. Adrastus, son of Gordias, son of
Midas, the destroyer of his brother in time past, the destroyer now
of his purifier, regarding himself as the most unfortunate wretch
whom he had ever known, so soon as all was quiet about the place,
slew himself upon the tomb. Croesus, bereft of his son, gave himself
up to mourning for two full years.
At the end of this time the grief of Croesus was interrupted by intelligence
from abroad. He learnt that Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, had destroyed
the empire of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares; and that the Persians
were becoming daily more powerful. This led him to consider with himself
whether it were possible to check the growing power of that people
before it came to a head. With this design he resolved to make instant
trial of the several oracles in Greece, and of the one in Libya. So
he sent his messengers in different directions, some to Delphi, some
to Abae in Phocis, and some to Dodona; others to the oracle of Amphiaraus;
others to that of Trophonius; others, again, to Branchidae in Milesia.
These were the Greek oracles which he consulted. To Libya he sent
another embassy, to consult the oracle of Ammon. These messengers
were sent to test the knowledge of the oracles, that, if they were
found really to return true answers, he might send a second time,
and inquire if he ought to attack the Persians.
The messengers who were despatched to make trial of the oracles were
given the following instructions: they were to keep count of the days
from the time of their leaving Sardis, and, reckoning from that date,
on the hundredth day they were to consult the oracles, and to inquire
of them what Croesus the son of Alyattes, king of Lydia, was doing
at that moment. The answers given them were to be taken down in writing,
and brought back to him. None of the replies remain on record except
that of the oracle at Delphi. There, the moment that the Lydians entered
the sanctuary, and before they put their questions, the Pythoness
thus answered them in hexameter verse:-
I can count the sands, and I can measure the ocean;
I have ears for the silent, and know what the dumb man meaneth;
Lo! on my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered
tortoise,
Boiling now on a fire, with the flesh of a lamb, in a cauldron-
Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above it.
These words the Lydians wrote down at the mouth of the Pythoness as
she prophesied, and then set off on their return to Sardis. When all
the messengers had come back with the answers which they had received,
Croesus undid the rolls, and read what was written in each. Only one
approved itself to him, that of the Delphic oracle. This he had no
sooner heard than he instantly made an act of adoration, and accepted
it as true, declaring that the Delphic was the only really oracular
shrine, the only one that had discovered in what way he was in fact
employed. For on the departure of his messengers he had set himself
to think what was most impossible for any one to conceive of his doing,
and then, waiting till the day agreed on came, he acted as he had
determined. He took a tortoise and a lamb, and cutting them in pieces
with his own hands, boiled them both together in a brazen cauldron,
covered over with a lid which was also of brass.
Such then was the answer returned to Croesus from Delphi. What the
answer was which the Lydians who went to the shrine of Amphiarans
and performed the customary rites obtained of the oracle there, I
have it not in my power to mention, for there is no record of it.
All that is known is that Croesus believed himself to have found there
also an oracle which spoke the truth.
After this Croesus, having resolved to propitiate the Delphic god
with a magnificent sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every kind
of sacrificial beast, and besides made a huge pile, and placed upon
it couches coated with silver and with gold, and golden goblets, and
robes and vests of purple; all which he burnt in the hope of thereby
making himself more secure of the favour of the god. Further he issued
his orders to all the people of the land to offer a sacrifice according
to their means. When the sacrifice was ended, the king melted down
a vast quantity of gold, and ran it into ingots, making them six palms
long, three palms broad, and one palm in thickness. The number of
ingots was a hundred and seventeen, four being of refined gold, in
weight two talents and a half; the others of pale gold, and in weight
two talents. He also caused a statue of a lion to be made in refined
gold, the weight of which was ten talents. At the time when the temple
of Delphi was burnt to the ground, this lion fell from the ingots
on which it was placed; it now stands in the Corinthian treasury,
and weighs only six talents and a half, having lost three talents
and a half by the fire.
On the completion of these works Croesus sent them away to Delphi,
and with them two bowls of an enormous size, one of gold, the other
of silver, which used to stand, the latter upon the right, the former
upon the left, as one entered the temple. They too were moved at the
time of the fire; and now the golden one is in the Clazomenian treasury,
and weighs eight talents and forty-two minae; the silver one stands
in the corner of the ante-chapel, and holds six hundred amphorae.
This is known because the Delphians fill it at the time of the Theophania.
It is said by the Delphians to be a work of Theodore the Samian, and
I think that they say true, for assuredly it is the work of no common
artist. Croesus sent also four silver casks, which are in the Corinthian
treasury, and two lustral vases, a golden and a silver one. On the
former is inscribed the name of the Lacedaemonians, and they claim
it as a gift of theirs, but wrongly, since it was really given by
Croesus. The inscription upon it was cut by a Delphian, who wished
to pleasure the Lacedaemonians. His name is known to me, but I forbear
to mention it. The boy, through whose hand the water runs, is (I confess)
a Lacedaemonian gift, but they did not give either of the lustral
vases. Besides these various offerings, Croesus sent to Delphi many
others of less account, among the rest a number of round silver basins.
Also he dedicated a female figure in gold, three cubits high, which
is said by the Delphians to be the statue of his baking-woman; and
further, he presented the necklace and the girdles of his wife.
These were the offerings sent by Croesus to Delphi. To the shrine
of Amphiaraus, with whose valour and misfortune he was acquainted,
he sent a shield entirely of gold, and a spear, also of solid gold,
both head and shaft. They were still existing in my day at Thebes,
laid up in the temple of Ismenian Apollo.
The messengers who had the charge of conveying these treasures to
the shrines, received instructions to ask the oracles whether Croesus
should go to war with the Persians and if so, whether he should strengthen
himself by the forces of an ally. Accordingly, when they had reached
their destinations and presented the gifts, they proceeded to consult
the oracles in the following terms:- "Croesus, of Lydia and other
countries, believing that these are the only real oracles in all the
world, has sent you such presents as your discoveries deserved, and
now inquires of you whether he shall go to war with the Persians,
and if so, whether he shall strengthen himself by the forces of a
confederate." Both the oracles agreed in the tenor of their reply,
which was in each case a prophecy that if Croesus attacked the Persians,
he would destroy a mighty empire, and a recommendation to him to look
and see who were the most powerful of the Greeks, and to make alliance
with them.
At the receipt of these oracular replies Croesus was overjoyed, and
feeling sure now that he would destroy the empire of the Persians,
he sent once more to Pytho, and presented to the Delphians, the number
of whom he had ascertained, two gold staters apiece. In return for
this the Delphians granted to Croesus and the Lydians the privilege
of precedency in consulting the oracle, exemption from all charges,
the most honourable seat at the festivals, and the perpetual right
of becoming at pleasure citizens of their town.
After sending these presents to the Delphians, Croesus a third time
consulted the oracle, for having once proved its truthfulness, he
wished to make constant use of it. The question whereto he now desired
an answer was- "Whether his kingdom would be of long duration?" The
following was the reply of the Pythoness:-
Wait till the time shall come when a mule is monarch of Media;
Then, thou delicate Lydian, away to the pebbles of Hermus;
Haste, oh! haste thee away, nor blush to behave like a coward.
Of all the answers that had reached him, this pleased him far the
best, for it seemed incredible that a mule should ever come to be
king of the Medes, and so he concluded that the sovereignty would
never depart from himself or his seed after him. Afterwards he turned
his thoughts to the alliance which he had been recommended to contract,
and sought to ascertain by inquiry which was the most powerful of
the Grecian states. His inquiries pointed out to him two states as
pre-eminent above the rest. These were the Lacedaemonians and the
Athenians, the former of Doric, the latter of Ionic blood. And indeed
these two nations had held from very, early times the most distinguished
place in Greece, the being a Pelasgic, the other a Hellenic people,
and the one having never quitted its original seats, while the other
had been excessively migratory; for during the reign of Deucalion,
Phthiotis was the country in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus,
the son of Hellen, they moved to the tract at the base of Ossa and
Olympus, which is called Histiaeotis; forced to retire from that region
by the Cadmeians, they settled, under the name of Macedni, in the
chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis;
and from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they
became known as Dorians.
What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty.
If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the
Pelasgi of the present day- those, for instance, who live at Creston
above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis,
and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians- or those
again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had
previously dwelt for some time with the Athenians- or those, in short,
of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in
fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of
these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language.
If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same
tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed
their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic
body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a
language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the
Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the
same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought
with them into the countries where they are now settled.
The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech.
This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic,
which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers
and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude
of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous
tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think,
a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.
On inquiring into the condition of these two nations, Croesus found
that one, the Athenian, was in a state of grievous oppression and
distraction under Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, who was at
that time tyrant of Athens. Hippocrates, when he was a private citizen,
is said to have gone once upon a time to Olympia to see the Games,
when a wonderful prodigy happened to him. As he was employed in sacrificing,
the cauldrons which stood near, full of water and of the flesh of
the victims, began to boil without the help of fire, so that the water
overflowed the pots. Chilon the Lacedaemonian, who happened to be
there and to witness the prodigy, advised Hippocrates, if he were
unmarried, never to take into his house a wife who could bear him
a child; if he already had one, to send her back to her friends; if
he had a son, to disown him. Chilon's advice did not at all please
Hippocrates, who disregarded it, and some time after became the father
of Pisistratus. This Pisistratus, at a time when there was civil contention
in Attica between the party of the Sea-coast headed by Megacles the
son of Alcmaeon, and that of the Plain headed by Lycurgus, one of
the Aristolaids, formed the project of making himself tyrant, and
with this view created a third party. Gathering together a band of
partisans, and giving himself out for the protector of the Highlanders,
he contrived the following stratagem. He wounded himself and his mules,
and then drove his chariot into the market-place, professing to have
just escaped an attack of his enemies, who had attempted his life
as he was on his way into the country. He besought the people to assign
him a guard to protect his person, reminding them of the glory which
he had gained when he led the attack upon the Megarians, and took
the town of Nisaea, at the same time performing many other exploits.
The Athenians, deceived by his story, appointed him a band of citizens
to serve as a guard, who were to carry clubs instead of spears, and
to accompany him wherever he went. Thus strengthened, Pisistratus
broke into revolt and seized the citadel. In this way he acquired
the sovereignty of Athens, which he continued to hold without disturbing
the previously existing offices or altering any of the laws. He administered
the state according to the established usages, and his arrangements
were wise and salutary.
However, after a little time, the partisans of Megacles and those
of Lycurgus agreed to forget their differences, and united to drive
him out. So Pisistratus, having by the means described first made
himself master of Athens, lost his power again before it had time
to take root. No sooner, however, was he departed than the factions
which had driven him out quarrelled anew, and at last Megacles, wearied
with the struggle, sent a herald to Pisistratus, with an offer to
re-establish him on the throne if he would marry his daughter. Pisistratus
consented, and on these terms an agreement was concluded between the
two, after which they proceeded to devise the mode of his restoration.
And here the device on which they hit was the silliest that I find
on record, more especially considering that the Greeks have been from
very ancient times distinguished from the barbarians by superior sagacity
and freedom from foolish simpleness, and remembering that the persons
on whom this trick was played were not only Greeks but Athenians,
who have the credit of surpassing all other Greeks in cleverness.
There was in the Paeanian district a woman named Phya, whose height
only fell short of four cubits by three fingers' breadth, and who
was altogether comely to look upon. This woman they clothed in complete
armour, and, instructing her as to the carriage which she was to maintain
in order to beseem her part, they placed her in a chariot and drove
to the city. Heralds had been sent forward to precede her, and to
make proclamation to this effect: "Citizens of Athens, receive again
Pisistratus with friendly minds. Minerva, who of all men honours him
the most, herself conducts him back to her own citadel." This they
proclaimed in all directions, and immediately the rumour spread throughout
the country districts that Minerva was bringing back her favourite.
They of the city also, fully persuaded that the woman was the veritable
goddess, prostrated themselves before her, and received Pisistratus
back.
Pisistratus, having thus recovered the sovereignty, married, according
to agreement, the daughter of Megacles. As, however, he had already
a family of grown up sons, and the Alcmaeonidae were supposed to be
under a curse, he determined that there should be no issue of the
marriage. His wife at first kept this matter to herself, but after
a time, either her mother questioned her, or it may be that she told
it of her own accord. At any rate, she informed her mother, and so
it reached her father's ears. Megacles, indignant at receiving an
affront from such a quarter, in his anger instantly made up his differences
with the opposite faction, on which Pisistratus, aware of what was
planning against him, took himself out of the country. Arrived at
Eretria, he held a council with his children to decide what was to
be done. The opinion of Hippias prevailed, and it was agreed to aim
at regaining the sovereignty. The first step was to obtain advances
of money from such states as were under obligations to them. By these
means they collected large sums from several countries, especially
from the Thebans, who gave them far more than any of the rest. To
be brief, time passed, and all was at length got ready for their return.
A band of Argive mercenaries arrived from the Peloponnese, and a certain
Naxian named Lygdamis, who volunteered his services, was particularly
zealous in the cause, supplying both men and money.
In the eleventh year of their exile the family of Pisistratus set
sail from Eretria on their return home. They made the coast of Attica,
near Marathon, where they encamped, and were joined by their partisans
from the capital and by numbers from the country districts, who loved
tyranny better than freedom. At Athens, while Pisistratus was obtaining
funds, and even after he landed at Marathon, no one paid any attention
to his proceedings. When, however, it became known that he had left
Marathon, and was marching upon the city, preparations were made for
resistance, the whole force of the state was levied, and led against
the returning exiles. Meantime the army of Pisistratus, which had
broken up from Marathon, meeting their adversaries near the temple
of the Pallenian Minerva, pitched their camp opposite them. Here a
certain soothsayer, Amphilytus by name, an Acarnanian, moved by a
divine impulse, came into the presence of Pisistratus, and approaching
him uttered this prophecy in the hexameter measure:-
Now has the cast been made, the net is out-spread in the water,
Through the moonshiny night the tunnies will enter the meshes.
Such was the prophecy uttered under a divine inspiration. Pisistratus,
apprehending its meaning, declared that he accepted the oracle, and
instantly led on his army. The Athenians from the city had just finished
their midday meal, after which they had betaken themselves, some to
dice, others to sleep, when Pisistratus with his troops fell upon
them and put them to the rout. As soon as the flight began, Pisistratus
bethought himself of a most wise contrivance, whereby the might be
induced to disperse and not unite in a body any more. He mounted his
sons on horseback and sent them on in front to overtake the fugitives,
and exhort them to be of good cheer, and return each man to his home.
The Athenians took the advice, and Pisistratus became for the third
time master of Athens.
Upon this he set himself to root his power more firmly, by the aid
of a numerous body of mercenaries, and by keeping up a full exchequer,
partly supplied from native sources, partly from the countries about
the river Strymon. He also demanded hostages from many of the Athenians
who had remained at home, and not left Athens at his approach; and
these he sent to Naxos, which he had conquered by force of arms, and
given over into the charge of Lygdamis. Farther, he purified the island
of Delos, according to the injunctions of an oracle, after the following
fashion. All the dead bodies which had been interred within sight
of the temple he dug up, and removed to another part of the isle.
Thus was the tyranny of Pisistratus established at Athens, many of
the Athenians having fallen in the battle, and many others having
fled the country together with the son of Alcmaeon.
Such was the condition of the Athenians when Croesus made inquiry
concerning them. Proceeding to seek information concerning the Lacedaemonians,
he learnt that, after passing through a period of great depression,
they had lately been victorious in a war with the people of Tegea;
for, during the joint reign of Leo and Agasicles, kings of Sparta,
the Lacedaemonians, successful in all their other wars, suffered continual
defeat at the hands of the Tegeans. At a still earlier period they
had been the very worst governed people in Greece, as well in matters
of internal management as in their relations towards foreigners, from
whom they kept entirely aloof. The circumstances which led to their
being well governed were the following:- Lycurgus, a man of distinction
among the Spartans, had gone to Delphi, to visit the oracle. Scarcely
had he entered into the inner fane, when the Pythoness exclaimed aloud,
Oh! thou great Lycurgus, that com'st to my beautiful dwelling,
Dear to love, and to all who sit in the halls of Olympus,
Whether to hail thee a god I know not, or only a mortal,
But my hope is strong that a god thou wilt prove, Lycurgus. Some report
besides, that the Pythoness delivered to him the entire system of
laws which are still observed by the Spartans. The Lacedaemonians,
however. themselves assert that Lycurgus, when he was guardian of
his nephew, Labotas, king of Sparta, and regent in his room, introduced
them from Crete; for as soon as he became regent, he altered the whole
of the existing customs, substituting new ones, which he took care
should be observed by all. After this he arranged whatever appertained
to war, establishing the Enomotiae, Triacades, and Syssitia, besides
which he instituted the senate,' and the ephoralty. Such was the way
in which the Lacedaemonians became a well-governed people.
On the death of Lycurgus they built him a temple, and ever since they
have worshipped him with the utmost reverence. Their soil being good
and the population numerous, they sprang up rapidly to power, and
became a flourishing people. In consequence they soon ceased to be
satisfied to stay quiet; and, regarding the Arcadians as very much
their inferiors, they sent to consult the oracle about conquering
the whole of Arcadia. The Pythoness thus answered them:
Cravest thou Arcady? Bold is thy craving. I shall not content it.
Many the men that in Arcady dwell, whose food is the acorn-
They will never allow thee. It is not I that am niggard.
I will give thee to dance in Tegea, with noisy foot-fall,
And with the measuring line mete out the glorious champaign. When
the Lacedaemonians received this reply, leaving the rest of Arcadia
untouched, they marched against the Tegeans, carrying with them fetters,
so confident had this oracle (which was, in truth, but of base metal)
made them that they would enslave the Tegeans. The battle, however,
went against them, and many fell into the enemy's hands. Then these
persons, wearing the fetters which they had themselves brought, and
fastened together in a string, measured the Tegean plain as they executed
their labours. The fetters in which they worked were still, in my
day, preserved at Tegea where they hung round the walls of the temple
of Minerva Alea.
Throughout the whole of this early contest with the Tegeans, the Lacedaemonians
met with nothing but defeats; but in the time of Croesus, under the
kings Anaxandrides and Aristo, fortune had turned in their favour,
in the manner which I will now relate. Having been worsted in every
engagement by their enemy, they sent to Delphi, and inquired of the
oracle what god they must propitiate to prevail in the war against
the Tegeans. The answer of the Pythoness was that before they could
prevail, they must remove to Sparta the bones of Orestes, the son
of Agamemnon. Unable to discover his burial-place, they sent a second
time, and asked the god where the body of the hero had been laid.
The following was the answer they received:-
Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth;
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity, blowing,
Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea's master. After this
reply, the Lacedaemonians were no nearer discovering the burial-place
than before, though they continued to search for it diligently; until
at last a man named Lichas, one of the Spartans called Agathoergi,
found it. The Agathoergi are citizens who have just served their time
among the knights. The five eldest of the knights go out every year,
and are bound during the year after their discharge to go wherever
the State sends them, and actively employ themselves in its service.
Lichas was one of this body when, partly by good luck, partly by his
own wisdom, he discovered the burial-place. Intercourse between the
two States existing just at this time, he went to Tegea, and, happening
to enter into the workshop of a smith, he saw him forging some iron.
As he stood marvelling at what he beheld, he was observed by the smith
who, leaving off his work, went up to him and said,
"Certainly, then, you Spartan stranger, you would have been wonderfully
surprised if you had seen what I have, since you make a marvel even
of the working in iron. I wanted to make myself a well in this room,
and began to dig it, when what think you? I came upon a coffin seven
cubits long. I had never believed that men were taller in the olden
times than they are now, so I opened the coffin. The body inside was
of the same length: I measured it, and filled up the hole again."
Such was the man's account of what he had seen. The other, on turning
the matter over in his mind, conjectured that this was the body of
Orestes, of which the oracle had spoken. He guessed so, because he
observed that the smithy had two bellows, which he understood to be
the two winds, and the hammer and anvil would do for the stroke and
the counterstroke, and the iron that was being wrought for the evil
lying upon evil. This he imagined might be so because iron had been
discovered to the hurt of man. Full of these conjectures, he sped
back to Sparta and laid the whole matter before his countrymen. Soon
after, by a concerted plan, they brought a charge against him, and
began a prosecution. Lichas betook himself to Tegea, and on his arrival
acquainted the smith with his misfortune, and proposed to rent his
room of him. The smith refused for some time; but at last Lichas persuaded
him, and took up his abode in it. Then he opened the grave, and collecting
the bones, returned with them to Sparta. From henceforth, whenever
the Spartans and the Tegeans made trial of each other's skill in arms,
the Spartans always had greatly the advantage; and by the time to
which we are now come they were masters of most of the Peloponnese.
Croesus, informed of all these circumstances, sent messengers to Sparta,
with gifts in their hands, who were to ask the Spartans to enter into
alliance with him. They received strict injunctions as to what they
should say, and on their arrival at Sparta spake as follows:-
"Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other nations, has sent us to
speak thus to you: 'Oh Lacedaemonians, the god has bidden me to make
the Greek my friend; I therefore apply to you, in conformity with
the oracle, knowing that you hold the first rank in Greece, and desire
to become your friend and ally in all true faith and honesty.'"
Such was the message which Croesus sent by his heralds. The Lacedaemonians,
who were aware beforehand of the reply given him by the oracle, were
full of joy at the coming of the messengers, and at once took the
oaths of friendship and alliance: this they did the more readily as
they had previously contracted certain obligations towards him. They
had sent to Sardis on one occasion to purchase some gold, intending
to use it on a statue of Apollo- the statue, namely, which remains
to this day at Thornax in Laconia, when Croesus, hearing of the matter,
gave them as a gift the gold which they wanted.
This was one reason why the Lacedaemonians were so willing to make
the alliance: another was, because Croesus had chosen them for his
friends in preference to all the other Greeks. They therefore held
themselves in readiness to come at his summons, and not content with
so doing, they further had a huge vase made in bronze, covered with
figures of animals all round the outside of the rim, and large enough
to contain three hundred amphorae, which they sent to Croesus as a
return for his presents to them. The vase, however, never reached
Sardis. Its miscarriage is accounted for in two quite different ways.
The Lacedaemonian story is that when it reached Samos, on its way
towards Sardis, the Samians having knowledge of it, put to sea in
their ships of war and made it their prize. But the Samians declare
that the Lacedaemonians who had the vase in charge, happening to arrive
too late, and learning that Sardis had fallen and that Croesus was
a prisoner, sold it in their island, and the purchasers (who were,
they say, private persons) made an offering of it at the shrine of
Juno: the sellers were very likely on their return to Sparta to have
said that they had been robbed of it by the Samians. Such, then, was
the fate of the vase.
Meanwhile Croesus, taking the oracle in a wrong sense, led his forces
into Cappadocia, fully expecting to defeat Cyrus and destroy the empire
of the Persians. While he was still engaged in making preparations
for his attack, a Lydian named Sandanis, who had always been looked
upon as a wise man, but who after this obtained a very great name
indeed among his countrymen, came forward and counselled the king
in these words:
"Thou art about, oh! king, to make war against men who wear leathern
trousers, and have all their other garments of leather; who feed not
on what they like, but on what they can get from a soil that is sterile
and unkindly; who do not indulge in wine, but drink water; who possess
no figs nor anything else that is good to eat. If, then, thou conquerest
them, what canst thou get from them, seeing that they have nothing
at all? But if they conquer thee, consider how much that is precious
thou wilt lose: if they once get a taste of our pleasant things, they
will keep such hold of them that we shall never be able to make them
loose their grasp. For my part, I am thankful to the gods that they
have not put it into the hearts of the Persians to invade Lydia."
Croesus was not persuaded by this speech, though it was true enough;
for before the conquest of Lydia, the Persians possessed none of the
luxuries or delights of life.
The Cappadocians are known to the Greeks by the name of Syrians. Before
the rise of the Persian power, they had been subject to the Medes;
but at the present time they were within the empire of Cyrus, for
the boundary between the Median and the Lydian empires was the river
Halys. This stream, which rises in the mountain country of Armenia,
runs first through Cilicia; afterwards it flows for a while with the
Matieni on the right, and the Phrygians on the left: then, when they
are passed, it proceeds with a northern course, separating the Cappadocian
Syrians from the Paphlagonians, who occupy the left bank, thus forming
the boundary of almost the whole of Lower Asia, from the sea opposite
Cyprus to the Euxine. Just there is the neck of the peninsula, a journey
of five days across for an active walker.
There were two motives which led Croesus to attack Cappadocia: firstly,
he coveted the land, which he wished to add to his own dominions;
but the chief reason was that he wanted to revenge on Cyrus the wrongs
of Astyages, and was made confident by the oracle of being able so
to do: for Astyages, son of Cyaxares and king of the Medes, who had
been dethroned by Cyrus, son of Cambyses, was Croesus' brother by
marriage. This marriage had taken place under circumstances which
I will now relate. A band of Scythian nomads, who had left their own
land on occasion of some disturbance, had taken refuge in Media. Cyaxares,
son of Phraortes, and grandson of Deioces, was at that time king of
the country. Recognising them as suppliants, he began by treating
them with kindness, and coming presently to esteem them highly, he
intrusted to their care a number of boys, whom they were to teach
their language and to instruct in the use of the bow. Time passed,
and the Scythians employed themselves, day after day, in hunting,
and always brought home some game; but at last it chanced that one
day they took nothing. On their return to Cyaxares with empty hands,
that monarch, who was hot-tempered, as he showed upon the occasion,
received them very rudely and insultingly. In consequence of this
treatment, which they did not conceive themselves to have deserved,
the Scythians determined to take one of the boys whom they had in
charge, cut him in pieces, and then dressing the flesh as they were
wont to dress that of the wild animals, serve it up to Cyaxares as
game: after which they resolved to convey themselves with all speed
to Sardis, to the court of Alyattes, the son of Sadyattes. The plan
was carried out: Cyaxares and his guests ate of the flesh prepared
by the Scythians, and they themselves, having accomplished their purpose,
fled to Alyattes in the guise of suppliants.
Afterwards, on the refusal of Alyattes to give up his suppliants when
Cyaxares sent to demand them of him, war broke out between the Lydians
and the Medes, and continued for five years, with various success.
In the course of it the Medes gained many victories over the Lydians,
and the Lydians also gained many victories over the Medes. Among their
other battles there was one night engagement. As, however, the balance
had not inclined in favour of either nation, another combat took place
in the sixth year, in the course of which, just as the battle was
growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night. This event had
been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians
of it, fixing for it the very year in which it actually took place.
The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting,
and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on. Syennesis
of Cilicia, and Labynetus of Babylon, were the persons who mediated
between the parties, who hastened the taking of the oaths, and brought
about the exchange of espousals. It was they who advised that Alyattes
should give his daughter Aryenis in marriage to Astyages, the son
of Cyaxares, knowing, as they did, that without some sure bond of
strong necessity, there is wont to be but little security in men's
covenants. Oaths are taken by these people in the same way as by the
Greeks, except that they make a slight flesh wound in their arms,
from which each sucks a portion of the other's blood.
Cyrus had captured this Astyages, who was his mother's father, and
kept him prisoner, for a reason which I shall bring forward in another
of my history. This capture formed the ground of quarrel between Cyrus
and Croesus, in consequence of which Croesus sent his servants to
ask the oracle if he should attack the Persians; and when an evasive
answer came, fancying it to be in his favour, carried his arms into
the Persian territory. When he reached the river Halys, he transported
his army across it, as I maintain, by the bridges which exist there
at the present day; but, according to the general belief of the Greeks,
by the aid of Thales the Milesian. The tale is that Croesus was in
doubt how he should get his army across, as the bridges were not made
at that time, and that Thales, who happened to be in the camp, divided
the stream and caused it to flow on both sides of the army instead
of on the left only. This he effected thus:- Beginning some distance
above the camp, he dug a deep channel, which he brought round in a
semicircle, so that it might pass to rearward of the camp; and that
thus the river, diverted from its natural course into the new channel
at the point where this left the stream, might flow by the station
of the army, and afterwards fall again into the ancient bed. In this
way the river was split into two streams, which were both easily fordable.
It is said by some that the water was entirely drained off from the
natural bed of the river. But I am of a different opinion; for I do
not see how, in that case, they could have crossed it on their return.
Having passed the Halys with the forces under his command, Croesus
entered the district of Cappadocia which is called Pteria. It lies
in the neighbourhood of the city of Sinope upon the Euxine, and is
the strongest position in the whole country thereabouts. Here Croesus
pitched his camp, and began to ravage the fields of the Syrians. He
besieged and took the chief city of the Pterians, and reduced the
inhabitants to slavery: he likewise made himself master of the surrounding
villages. Thus he brought ruin on the Syrians, who were guilty of
no offence towards him. Meanwhile, Cyrus had levied an army and marched
against Croesus, increasing his numbers at every step by the forces
of the nations that lay in his way. Before beginning his march he
had sent heralds to the Ionians, with an invitation to them to revolt
from the Lydian king: they, however, had refused compliance. Cyrus,
notwithstanding, marched against the enemy, and encamped opposite
them in the district of Pteria, where the trial of strength took place
between the contending powers. The combat was hot and bloody, and
upon both sides the number of the slain was great; nor had victory
declared in favour of either party, when night came down upon the
battle-field. Thus both armies fought valiantly.
Croesus laid the blame of his ill success on the number of his troops,
which fell very short of the enemy; and as on the next day Cyrus did
not repeat the attack, he set off on his return to Sardis, intending
to collect his allies and renew the contest in the spring. He meant
to call on the Egyptians to send him aid, according to the terms of
the alliance which he had concluded with Amasis, previously to his
league with the Lacedaemonians. He intended also to summon to his
assistance the Babylonians, under their king Labynetus, for they too
were bound to him by treaty: and further, he meant to send word to
Sparta, and appoint a day for the coming of their succours. Having
got together these forces in addition to his own, he would, as soon
as the winter was past and springtime come, march once more against
the Persians. With these intentions Croesus, immediately on his return,
despatched heralds to his various allies, with a request that they
would join him at Sardis in the course of the fifth month from the
time of the departure of his messengers. He then disbanded the army
consisting of mercenary troops- which had been engaged with the Persians
and had since accompanied him to his capital, and let them depart
to their homes, never imagining that Cyrus, after a battle in which
victory had been so evenly balanced, would venture to march upon Sardis.
While Croesus was still in this mind, all the suburbs of Sardis were
found to swarm with snakes, on the appearance of which the horses
left feeding in the pasture-grounds, and flocked to the suburbs to
eat them. The king, who witnessed the unusual sight, regarded it very
rightly as a prodigy. He therefore instantly sent messengers to the
soothsayers of Telmessus, to consult them upon the matter, His messengers
reached the city, and obtained from the Telmessians an explanation
of what the prodigy portended, but fate did not allow them to inform
their lord; for ere they entered Sardis on their return, Croesus was
a prisoner. What the Telmessians had declared was that Croesus must
look for the entry of an army of foreign invaders into his country,
and that when they came they would subdue the native inhabitants;
since the snake, said they, is a child of earth, and the horse a warrior
and a foreigner. Croesus was already a prisoner when the Telmessians
thus answered his inquiry, but they had no knowledge of what was taking
place at Sardis, or of the fate of the monarch.
Cyrus, however, when Croesus broke up so suddenly from his quarters
after the battle at Pteria, conceiving that he had marched away with
the intention of disbanding his army, considered a little, and soon
saw that it was advisable for him to advance upon Sardis with all
haste, before the Lydians could get their forces together a second
time. Having thus determined, he lost no time in carrying out his
plan. He marched forward with such speed that he was himself the first
to announce his coming to the Lydian king. That monarch, placed in
the utmost difficulty by the turn of events which had gone so entirely
against all his calculations, nevertheless led out the Lydians to
battle. In all Asia there was not at that time a braver or more warlike
people. Their manner of fighting was on horseback; they carried long
lances, and were clever in the management of their steeds.
The two armies met in the plain before Sardis. It is a vast flat,
bare of trees, watered by the Hyllus and a number of other streams,
which all flow into one larger than the rest, called the Hermus. This
river rises in the sacred mountain of the Dindymenian Mother, and
falls into the sea near the town of Phocaea.
When Cyrus beheld the Lydians arranging themselves in order of battle
on this plain, fearful of the strength of their cavalry, he adopted
a device which Harpagus, one of the Medes, suggested to him. He collected
together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to
carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads,
he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded
to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse;
behind them were to follow the foot soldiers, and last of all the
cavalry. When his arrangements were complete, he gave his troops orders
to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without mercy,
but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if he should be seized
and offer resistance. The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the
enemy's horse was because the horse has a natural dread of the camel,
and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal. By
this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's horse useless to him, the
horse being what he chiefly depended on for victory. The two armies
then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war-horses, seeing
and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off; and so it
came to pass that all Croesus's hopes withered away. The Lydians,
however, behaved manfully. As soon as they understood what was happening,
they leaped off their horses, and engaged with the Persians on foot.
The combat was long; but at last, after a great slaughter on both
sides, the Lydians turned and fled. They were driven within their
walls and the Persians laid siege to Sardis.
Thus the siege began. Meanwhile Croesus, thinking that the place would
hold out no inconsiderable time, sent off fresh heralds to his allies
from the beleaguered town. His former messengers had been charged
to bid them assemble at Sardis in the course of the fifth month; they
whom he now sent were to say that he was already besieged, and to
beseech them to come to his aid with all possible speed. Among his
other allies Croesus did not omit to send to Lacedaemon.
It chanced, however, that the Spartans were themselves just at this
time engaged in a quarrel with the Argives about a place called Thyrea,
which was within the limits of Argolis, but had been seized on by
the Lacedaemonians. Indeed, the whole country westward, as far as
Cape Malea, belonged once to the Argives, and not only that entire
tract upon the mainland, but also Cythera, and the other islands.
The Argives collected troops to resist the seizure of Thyrea, but
before any battle was fought, the two parties came to terms, and it
was agreed that three hundred Spartans and three hundred Argives should
meet and fight for the place, which should belong to the nation with
whom the victory rested. It was stipulated also that the other troops
on each side should return home to their respective countries, and
not remain to witness the combat, as there was danger, if the armies
stayed, that either the one or the other, on seeing their countrymen
undergoing defeat, might hasten to their assistance. These terms being
agreed on, the two armies marched off, leaving three hundred picked
men on each side to fight for the territory. The battle began, and
so equal were the combatants, that at the close of the day, when night
put a stop to the fight, of the whole six hundred only three men remained
alive, two Argives, Alcanor and Chromius, and a single Spartan, Othryadas.
The two Argives, regarding themselves as the victors, hurried to Argos.
Othryadas, the Spartan, remained upon the field, and, stripping the
bodies of the Argives who had fallen, carried their armour to the
Spartan camp. Next day the two armies returned to learn the result.
At first they disputed, both parties claiming the victory, the one,
because they had the greater number of survivors; the other, because
their man remained on the field, and stripped the bodies of the slain,
whereas the two men of the other side ran away; but at last they fell
from words to blows, and a battle was fought, in which both parties
suffered great loss, but at the end the Lacedaemonians gained the
victory. Upon this the Argives, who up to that time had worn their
hair long, cut it off close, and made a law, to which they attached
a curse, binding themselves never more to let their hair grow, and
never to allow their women to wear gold, until they should recover
Thyrea. At the same time the Lacedaemonians made a law the very reverse
of this, namely, to wear their hair long, though they had always before
cut it close. Othryadas himself, it is said, the sole survivor of
the three hundred, prevented by a sense of shame from returning to
Sparta after all his comrades had fallen, laid violent hands upon
himself in Thyrea.
Although the Spartans were engaged with these matters when the herald
arrived from Sardis to entreat them to come to the assistance of the
besieged king, yet, notwithstanding, they instantly set to work to
afford him help. They had completed their preparations, and the ships
were just ready to start, when a second message informed them that
the place had already fallen, and that Croesus was a prisoner. Deeply
grieved at his misfortune, the Spartans ceased their efforts.
The following is the way in which Sardis was taken. On the fourteenth
day of the siege Cyrus bade some horsemen ride about his lines, and
make proclamation to the whole army that he would give a reward to
the man who should first mount the wall. After this he made an assault,
but without success. His troops retired, but a certain Mardian, Hyroeades
by name, resolved to approach the citadel and attempt it at a place
where no guards were ever set. On this side the rock was so precipitous,
and the citadel (as it seemed) so impregnable, that no fear was entertained
of its being carried in this place. Here was the only portion of the
circuit round which their old king Meles did not carry the lion which
his leman bore to him. For when the Telmessians had declared that
if the lion were taken round the defences, Sardis would be impregnable,
and Meles, in consequence, carried it round the rest of the fortress
where the citadel seemed open to attack, he scorned to take it round
this side, which he looked on as a sheer precipice, and therefore
absolutely secure. It is on that side of the city which faces Mount
Tmolus. Hyroeades, however, having the day before observed a Lydian
soldier descend the rock after a helmet that had rolled down from
the top, and having seen him pick it up and carry it back, thought
over what he had witnessed, and formed his plan. He climbed the rock
himself, and other Persians followed in his track, until a large number
had mounted to the top. Thus was Sardis taken, and given up entirely
to pillage.
With respect to Croesus himself, this is what befell him at the taking
of the town. He had a son, of whom I made mention above, a worthy
youth, whose only defect was that he was deaf and dumb. In the days
of his prosperity Croesus had done the utmost that be could for him,
and among other plans which he had devised, had sent to Delphi to
consult the oracle on his behalf. The answer which he had received
from the Pythoness ran thus:-
Lydian, wide-ruling monarch, thou wondrous simple Croesus,
Wish not ever to hear in thy palace the voice thou hast prayed for
Uttering intelligent sounds. Far better thy son should be silent!
Ah! woe worth the day when thine car shall first list to his
accents.
When the town was taken, one of the Persians was just going to kill
Croesus, not knowing who he was. Croesus saw the man coming, but under
the pressure of his affliction, did not care to avoid the blow, not
minding whether or no he died beneath the stroke. Then this son of
his, who was voiceless, beholding the Persian as he rushed towards
Croesus, in the agony of his fear and grief burst into speech, and
said, "Man, do not kill Croesus." This was the first time that he
had ever spoken a word, but afterwards he retained the power of speech
for the remainder of his life.
Thus was Sardis taken by the Persians, and Croesus himself fell into
their hands, after having reigned fourteen years, and been besieged
in his capital fourteen days; thus too did Croesus fulfill the oracle,
which said that he should destroy a mighty empire by destroying his
own. Then the Persians who had made Croesus prisoner brought him before
Cyrus. Now a vast pile had been raised by his orders, and Croesus,
laden with fetters, was placed upon it, and with him twice seven of
the sons of the Lydians. I know not whether Cyrus was minded to make
an offering of the to some god or other, or whether he had vowed a
vow and was performing it, or whether, as may well be, he had heard
that Croesus was a holy man, and so wished to see if any of the heavenly
powers would appear to save him from being burnt alive. However it
might be, Cyrus was thus engaged, and Croesus was already on the pile,
when it entered his mind in the depth of his woe that there was a
divine warning in the words which had come to him from the lips of
Solon, "No one while he lives is happy." When this thought smote him
he fetched a long breath, and breaking his deep silence, groaned out
aloud, thrice uttering the name of Solon. Cyrus caught the sounds,
and bade the interpreters inquire of Croesus who it was he called
on. They drew near and asked him, but he held his peace, and for a
long time made no answer to their questionings, until at length, forced
to say something, he exclaimed, "One I would give much to see converse
with every monarch." Not knowing what he meant by this reply, the
interpreters begged him to explain himself; and as they pressed for
an answer, and grew to be troublesome, he told them how, a long time
before, Solon, an Athenian, had come and seen all his splendour, and
made light of it; and how whatever he had said to him had fallen out
exactly as he foreshowed, although it was nothing that especially
concerned him, but applied to all mankind alike, and most to those
who seemed to themselves happy. Meanwhile, as he thus spoke, the pile
was lighted, and the outer portion began to blaze. Then Cyrus, hearing
from the interpreters what Croesus had said, relented, bethinking
himself that he too was a man, and that it was a fellow-man, and one
who had once been as blessed by fortune as himself, that he was burning
alive; afraid, moreover, of retribution, and full of the thought that
whatever is human is insecure. So he bade them quench the blazing
fire as quickly as they could, and take down Croesus and the other
Lydians, which they tried to do, but the flames were not to be mastered.
Then, the Lydians say that Croesus, perceiving by the efforts made
to quench the fire that Cyrus had relented, and seeing also that all
was in vain, and that the men could not get the fire under, called
with a loud voice upon the god Apollo, and prayed him, if he ever
received at his hands any acceptable gift, to come to his aid, and
deliver him from his present danger. As thus with tears he besought
the god, suddenly, though up to that time the sky had been clear and
the day without a breath of wind, dark clouds gathered, and the storm
burst over their heads with rain of such violence, that the flames
were speedily extinguished. Cyrus, convinced by this that Croesus
was a good man and a favourite of heaven, asked him after he was taken
off the pile, "Who it was that had persuaded him to lead an army into
his country, and so become his foe rather than continue his friend?"
to which Croesus made answer as follows: "What I did, oh! king, was
to thy advantage and to my own loss. If there be blame, it rests with
the god of the Greeks, who encouraged me to begin the war. No one
is so foolish as to prefer war to peace, in which, instead of sons
burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons. But the gods willed
it so."
Thus did Croesus speak. Cyrus then ordered his fetters to be taken
off, and made him sit down near himself, and paid him much respect,
looking upon him, as did also the courtiers, with a sort of wonder.
Croesus, wrapped in thought, uttered no word. After a while, happening
to turn and perceive the Persian soldiers engaged in plundering the
town, he said to Cyrus, "May I now tell thee, oh! king, what I have
in my mind, or is silence best?" Cyrus bade him speak his mind boldly.
Then he put this question: "What is it, oh! Cyrus, which those men
yonder are doing so busily?" "Plundering thy city," Cyrus answered,
"and carrying off thy riches." "Not my city," rejoined the other,
"nor my riches. They are not mine any more. It is thy wealth which
they are pillaging."
Cyrus, struck by what Croesus had said, bade all the court to withdraw,
and then asked Croesus what he thought it best for him to do as regarded
the plundering. Croesus answered, "Now that the gods have made me
thy slave, oh! Cyrus, it seems to me that it is my part, if I see
anything to thy advantage, to show it to thee. Thy subjects, the Persians,
are a poor people with a proud spirit. If then thou lettest them pillage
and possess themselves of great wealth, I will tell thee what thou
hast to expect at their hands. The man who gets the most, look to
having him rebel against thee. Now then, if my words please thee,
do thus, oh! king:- Let some of thy bodyguards be placed as sentinels
at each of the city gates, and let them take their booty from the
soldiers as they leave the town, and tell them that they do so because
the tenths are due to Jupiter. So wilt thou escape the hatred they
would feel if the plunder were taken away from them by force; and
they, seeing that what is proposed is just, will do it willingly."
Cyrus was beyond measure pleased with this advice, so excellent did
it seem to him. He praised Croesus highly, and gave orders to his
bodyguard to do as he had suggested. Then, turning to Croesus, he
said, "Oh! Croesus, I see that thou are resolved both in speech and
act to show thyself a virtuous prince: ask me, therefore, whatever
thou wilt as a gift at this moment." Croesus replied, "Oh! my lord,
if thou wilt suffer me to send these fetters to the god of the Greeks,
whom I once honoured above all other gods, and ask him if it is his
wont to deceive his benefactors- that will be the highest favour thou
canst confer on me." Cyrus upon this inquired what charge he had to
make against the god. Then Croesus gave him a full account of all
his projects, and of the answers of the oracle, and of the offerings
which he had sent, on which he dwelt especially, and told him how
it was the encouragement given him by the oracle which had led him
to make war upon Persia. All this he related, and at the end again
besought permission to reproach the god with his behaviour. Cyrus
answered with a laugh, "This I readily grant thee, and whatever else
thou shalt at any time ask at my hands." Croesus, finding his request
allowed, sent certain Lydians to Delphi, enjoining them to lay his
fetters upon the threshold of the temple, and ask the god, "If he
were not ashamed of having encouraged him, as the destined destroyer
of the empire of Cyrus, to begin a war with Persia, of which such
were the first-fruits?" As they said this they were to point to the
fetters- and further they were to inquire, "If it was the wont of
the Greek gods to be ungrateful?"
The Lydians went to Delphi and delivered their message, on which the
Pythoness is said to have replied- "It is not possible even for a
god to escape the decree of destiny. Croesus has been punished for
the sin of his fifth ancestor, who, when he was one of the bodyguard
of the Heraclides, joined in a woman's fraud, and, slaying his master,
wrongfully seized the throne. Apollo was anxious that the fall of
Sardis should not happen in the lifetime of Croesus, but be delayed
to his son's days; he could not, however, persuade the Fates. All
that they were willing to allow he took and gave to Croesus. Let Croesus
know that Apollo delayed the taking of Sardis three full years, and
that he is thus a prisoner three years later than was his destiny.
Moreover it was Apollo who saved him from the burning pile. Nor has
Croesus any right to complain with respect to the oracular answer
which he received. For when the god told him that, if he attacked
the Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire, he ought, if he had
been wise, to have sent again and inquired which empire was meant,
that of Cyrus or his own; but if he neither understood what was said,
nor took the trouble to seek for enlightenment, he has only himself
to blame for the result. Besides, he had misunderstood the last answer
which had been given him about the mule. Cyrus was that mule. For
the parents of Cyrus were of different races, and of different conditions-
his mother a Median princess, daughter of King Astyages, and his father
a Persian and a subject, who, though so far beneath her in all respects,
had married his royal mistress."
Such was the answer of the Pythoness. The Lydians returned to Sardis
and communicated it to Croesus, who confessed, on hearing it, that
the fault was his, not the god's. Such was the way in which Ionia
was first conquered, and so was the empire of Croesus brought to a
close.
Besides the offerings which have been already mentioned, there are
many others in various parts of Greece presented by Croesus; as at
Thebes in Boeotia, where there is a golden tripod, dedicated by him
to Ismenian Apollo; at Ephesus, where the golden heifers, and most
of the columns are his gift; and at Delphi, in the temple of Pronaia,
where there is a huge shield in gold, which he gave. All these offerings
were still in existence in my day; many others have perished: among
them those which he dedicated at Branchidae in Milesia, equal in weight,
as I am informed, and in all respects like to those at Delphi. The
Delphian presents, and those sent to Amphiaraus, came from his own
private property, being the first-fruits of the fortune which he inherited
from his father; his other offerings came from the riches of an enemy,
who, before he mounted the throne, headed a party against him, with
the view of obtaining the crown of Lydia for Pantaleon. This Pantaleon
was a son of Alyattes, but by a different mother from Croesus; for
the mother of Croesus was a Carian woman, but the mother of Pantaleon
an Ionian. When, by the appointment of his father, Croesus obtained
the kingly dignity, he seized the man who had plotted against him,
and broke him upon the wheel. His property, which he had previously
devoted to the service of the gods, Croesus applied in the way mentioned
above. This is all I shall say about his offerings.
Lydia, unlike most other countries, scarcely offers any wonders for
the historian to describe, except the gold-dust which is washed down
from the range of Tmolus. It has, however, one structure of enormous
size, only inferior to the monuments of Egypt and Babylon. This is
the tomb of Alyattes, the father of Croesus, the base of which is
formed of immense blocks of stone, the rest being a vast mound of
earth. It was raised by the joint labour of the tradesmen, handicraftsmen,
and courtesans of Sardis, and had at the top five stone pillars, which
remained to my day, with inscriptions cut on them, showing how much
of the work was done by each class of workpeople. It appeared on measurement
that the portion of the courtesans was the largest. The daughters
of the common people in Lydia, one and all, pursue this traffic, wishing
to collect money for their portions. They continue the practice till
they marry; and are wont to contract themselves in marriage. The tomb
is six stades and two plethra in circumference; its breadth is thirteen
plethra. Close to the tomb is a large lake, which the Lydians say
is never dry. They call it the Lake Gygaea.
The Lydians have very nearly the same customs as the Greeks, with
the exception that these last do not bring up their girls in the same
way. So far as we have any knowledge, they were the first nation to
introduce the use of gold and silver coin, and the first who sold
goods by retail. They claim also the invention of all the games which
are common to them with the Greeks. These they declare that they invented
about the time when they colonised Tyrrhenia, an event of which they
give the following account. In the days of Atys, the son of Manes,
there was great scarcity through the whole land of Lydia. For some
time the Lydians bore the affliction patiently, but finding that it
did not pass away, they set to work to devise remedies for the evil.
Various expedients were discovered by various persons; dice, and huckle-bones,
and ball, and all such games were invented, except tables, the invention
of which they do not claim as theirs. The plan adopted against the
famine was to engage in games one day so entirely as not to feel any
craving for food, and the next day to eat and abstain from games.
In this way they passed eighteen years. Still the affliction continued
and even became more grievous. So the king determined to divide the
nation in half, and to make the two portions draw lots, the one to
stay, the other to leave the land. He would continue to reign over
those whose lot it should be to remain behind; the emigrants should
have his son Tyrrhenus for their leader. The lot was cast, and they
who had to emigrate went down to Smyrna, and built themselves ships,
in which, after they had put on board all needful stores, they sailed
away in search of new homes and better sustenance. After sailing past
many countries they came to Umbria, where they built cities for themselves,
and fixed their residence. Their former name of Lydians they laid
aside, and called themselves after the name of the king's son, who
led the colony, Tyrrhenians.
Thus far I have been engaged in showing how the Lydians were brought
under the Persian yoke. The course of my history now compels me to
inquire who this Cyrus was by whom the Lydian empire was destroyed,
and by what means the Persians had become the lords paramount of Asia.
And herein I shall follow those Persian authorities whose object it
appears to be not to magnify the exploits of Cyrus, but to relate
the simple truth. I know besides three ways in which the story of
Cyrus is told, all differing from my own narrative.
The Assyrians had held the Empire of Upper Asia for the space of five
hundred and twenty years, when the Medes set the example of revolt
from their authority. They took arms for the recovery of their freedom,
and fought a battle with the Assyrians, in which they behaved with
such gallantry as to shake off the yoke of servitude, and to become
a free people. Upon their success the other nations also revolted
and regained their independence.
Thus the nations over that whole extent of country obtained the blessing
of self-government, but they fell again under the sway of kings, in
the manner which I will now relate. There was a certain Mede named
Deioces, son of Phraortes, a man of much wisdom, who had conceived
the desire of obtaining to himself the sovereign power. In furtherance
of his ambition, therefore, he formed and carried into execution the
following scheme. As the Medes at that time dwelt in scattered villages
without any central authority, and lawlessness in consequence prevailed
throughout the land, Deioces, who was already a man of mark in his
own village, applied himself with greater zeal and earnestness than
ever before to the practice of justice among his fellows. It was his
conviction that justice and injustice are engaged in perpetual war
with one another. He therefore began his course of conduct, and presently
the men of his village, observing his integrity, chose him to be the
arbiter of all their disputes. Bent on obtaining the sovereign power,
he showed himself an honest and an upright judge, and by these means
gained such credit with his fellow-citizens as to attract the attention
of those who lived in the surrounding villages. They had long been
suffering from unjust and oppressive judgments; so that, when they
heard of the singular uprightness of Deioces, and of the equity of
his decisions, they joyfully had recourse to him in the various quarrels
and suits that arose, until at last they came to put confidence in
no one else.
The number of complaints brought before him continually increasing,
as people learnt more and more the fairness of his judgments, Deioces,
feeling himself now all important, announced that he did not intend
any longer to hear causes, and appeared no more in the seat in which
he had been accustomed to sit and administer justice. "It did not
square with his interests," he said, "to spend the whole day in regulating
other men's affairs to the neglect of his own." Hereupon robbery and
lawlessness broke out afresh, and prevailed through the country even
more than heretofore; wherefore the Medes assembled from all quarters,
and held a consultation on the state of affairs. The speakers, as
I think, were chiefly friends of Deioces. "We cannot possibly," they
said, "go on living in this country if things continue as they now
are; let us therefore set a king over us, that so the land may be
well governed, and we ourselves may be able to attend to our own affairs,
and not be forced to quit our country on account of anarchy." The
assembly was persuaded by these arguments, and resolved to appoint
a king.
It followed to determine who should be chosen to the office. When
this debate began the claims of Deioces and his praises were at once
in every mouth; so that presently all agreed that he should be king.
Upon this he required a palace to be built for him suitable to his
rank, and a guard to be given him for his person. The Medes complied,
and built him a strong and large palace, on a spot which he himself
pointed out, and likewise gave him liberty to choose himself a bodyguard
from the whole nation. Thus settled upon the throne, he further required
them to build a single great city, and, disregarding the petty towns
in which they had formerly dwelt, make the new capital the object
of their chief attention. The Medes were again obedient, and built
the city now called Agbatana, the walls of which are of great size
and strength, rising in circles one within the other. The plan of
the place is that each of the walls should out-top the one beyond
it by the battlements. The nature of the ground, which is a gentle
hill, favours this arrangement in some degree, but it was mainly effected
by art. The number of the circles is seven, the royal palace and the
treasuries standing within the last. The circuit of the outer wall
is very nearly the same with that of Athens. Of this wall the battlements
are white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth
blue, of the fifth orange; all these are coloured with paint. The
two last have their battlements coated respectively with silver and
gold.
All these fortifications Deioces caused to be raised for himself and
his own palace. The people were required to build their dwellings
outside the circuit of the walls. When the town was finished, he proceeded
to arrange the ceremonial. He allowed no one to have direct access
to the person of the king, but made all communication pass through
the hands of messengers, and forbade the king to be seen by his subjects.
He also made it an offence for any one whatsoever to laugh or spit
in the royal presence. This ceremonial, of which he was the first
inventor, Deioces established for his own security, fearing that his
compeers, who were brought up together with him, and were of as good
family as he, and no whit inferior to him in manly qualities, if they
saw him frequently would be pained at the sight, and would therefore
be likely to conspire against him; whereas if they did not see him,
they would think him quite a different sort of being from themselves.
After completing these arrangements, and firmly settling himself upon
the throne, Deioces continued to administer justice with the same
strictness as before. Causes were stated in writing, and sent in to
the king, who passed his judgment upon the contents, and transmitted
his decisions to the parties concerned: besides which he had spies
and eavesdroppers in all parts of his dominions, and if he heard of
any act of oppression, he sent for the guilty party, and awarded him
the punishment meet for his offence.
Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them
alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae,
the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi.
Having reigned three-and-fifty years, Deioces was at his death succeeded
by his son Phraortes. This prince, not satisfied with a dominion which
did not extend beyond the single nation of the Medes, began by attacking
the Persians; and marching an army into their country, brought them
under the Median yoke before any other people. After this success,
being now at the head of two nations, both of them powerful, he proceeded
to conquer Asia, overrunning province after province. At last he engaged
in war with the Assyrians- those Assyrians, I mean, to whom Nineveh
belonged, who were formerly the lords of Asia. At present they stood
alone by the revolt and desertion of their allies, yet still their
internal condition was as flourishing as ever. Phraortes attacked
them, but perished in the expedition with the greater part of his
army, after having reigned over the Medes two-and-twenty years.
On the death of Phraortes his son Cyaxares ascended the throne. Of
him it is reported that he was still more war-like than any of his
ancestors, and that he was the first who gave organisation to an Asiatic
army, dividing the troops into companies, and forming distinct bodies
of the spearmen, the archers, and the cavalry, who before his time
had been mingled in one mass, and confused together. He it was who
fought against the Lydians on the occasion when the day was changed
suddenly into night, and who brought under his dominion the whole
of Asia beyond the Halys. This prince, collecting together all the
nations which owned his sway, marched against Nineveh, resolved to
avenge his father, and cherishing a hope that he might succeed in
taking the town. A battle was fought, in which the Assyrians suffered
a defeat, and Cyaxares had already begun the siege of the place, when
a numerous horde of Scyths, under their king Madyes, son of Prtotohyes,
burst into Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians whom they had driven
out of Europe, and entered the Median territory.
The distance from the Palus Maeotis to the river Phasis and the Colchians
is thirty days' journey for a lightly-equipped traveller. From Colchis
to cross into Media does not take long- there is only a single intervening
nation, the Saspirians, passing whom you find yourself in Media. This
however was not the road followed by the Scythians, who turned out
of the straight course, and took the upper route, which is much longer,
keeping the Caucasus upon their right. The Scythians, having thus
invaded Media, were opposed by the Medes, who gave them battle, but,
being defeated, lost their empire. The Scythians became masters of
Asia.
After this they marched forward with the design of invading Egypt.
When they had reached Palestine, however, Psammetichus the Egyptian
king met them with gifts and prayers, and prevailed on them to advance
no further. On their return, passing through Ascalon, a city of Syria,
the greater part of them went their way without doing any damage;
but some few who lagged behind pillaged the temple of Celestial Venus.
I have inquired and find that the temple at Ascalon is the most ancient
of all the temples to this goddess; for the one in Cyprus, as the
Cyprians themselves admit, was built in imitation of it; and that
in Cythera was erected by the Phoenicians, who belong to this part
of Syria. The Scythians who plundered the temple were punished by
the goddess with the female sickness, which still attaches to their
posterity. They themselves confess that they are afflicted with the
disease for this reason, and travellers who visit Scythia can see
what sort of a disease it is. Those who suffer from it are called
Enarees.
The dominion of the Scythians over Asia lasted eight-and-twenty years,
during which time their insolence and oppression spread ruin on every
side. For besides the regular tribute, they exacted from the several
nations additional imposts, which they fixed at pleasure; and further,
they scoured the country and plundered every one of whatever they
could. At length Cyaxares and the Medes invited the greater part of
them to a banquet, and made them drunk with wine, after which they
were all massacred. The Medes then recovered their empire, and had
the same extent of dominion as before. They took Nineveh- I will relate
how in another history- and conquered all Assyria except the district
of Babylonia. After this Cyaxares died, having reigned over the Medes,
if we include the time of the Scythian rule, forty years.
Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, succeeded to the throne. He had a daughter
who was named Mandane concerning whom he had a wonderful dream. He
dreamt that from her such a stream of water flowed forth as not only
to fill his capital, but to flood the whole of Asia. This vision he
laid before such of the Magi as had the gift of interpreting dreams,
who expounded its meaning to him in full, whereat he was greatly terrified.
On this account, when his daughter was now of ripe age, he would not
give her in marriage to any of the Medes who were of suitable rank,
lest the dream should be accomplished; but he married her to a Persian
of good family indeed, but of a quiet temper, whom he looked on as
much inferior to a Mede of even middle condition.
Thus Cambyses (for so was the Persian called) wedded Mandane, and
took her to his home, after which, in the very first year, Astyages
saw another vision. He fancied that a vine grew from the womb of his
daughter, and overshadowed the whole of Asia. After this dream, which
he submitted also to the interpreters, he sent to Persia and fetched
away Mandane, who was now with child, and was not far from her time.
On her arrival he set a watch over her, intending to destroy the child
to which she should give birth; for the Magian interpreters had expounded
the vision to foreshow that the offspring of his daughter would reign
over Asia in his stead. To guard against this, Astyages, as soon as
Cyrus was born, sent for Harpagus, a man of his own house and the
most faithful of the Medes, to whom he was wont to entrust all his
affairs, and addressed him thus- "Harpagus, I beseech thee neglect
not the business with which I am about to charge thee; neither betray
thou the interests of thy lord for others' sake, lest thou bring destruction
on thine own head at some future time. Take the child born of Mandane
my daughter; carry him with thee to thy home and slay him there. Then
bury him as thou wilt." "Oh! king," replied the other, "never in time
past did Harpagus disoblige thee in anything, and be sure that through
all future time he will be careful in nothing to offend. If therefore
it be thy will that this thing be done, it is for me to serve thee
with all diligence."
When Harpagus had thus answered, the child was given into his hands,
clothed in the garb of death, and he hastened weeping to his home.
There on his arrival he found his wife, to whom he told all that Astyages
had said. "What then," said she, "is it now in thy heart to do?" "Not
what Astyages requires," he answered; "no, he may be madder and more
frantic still than he is now, but I will not be the man to work his
will, or lend a helping hand to such a murder as this. Many things
forbid my slaying him. In the first place the boy is my own kith and
kin; and next Astyages is old, and has no son. If then when he dies
the crown should go to his daughter- that daughter whose child he
now wishes to slay by my hand- what remains for me but danger of the
fearfullest kind? For my own safety, indeed, the child must die; but
some one belonging to Astyages must take his life, not I or mine."
So saying he sent off a messenger to fetch a certain Mitradates, one
of the herdsmen of Astyages, whose pasturages he knew to be the fittest
for his purpose, lying as they did among mountains infested with wild
beasts. This man was married to one of the king's female slaves, whose
Median name was Spaco, which is in Greek Cyno, since in the Median
tongue the word "Spaca" means a bitch. The mountains, on the skirts
of which his cattle grazed, lie to the north of Agbatana, towards
the Euxine. That part of Media which borders on the Saspirians is
an elevated tract, very mountainous, and covered with forests, while
the rest of the Median territory is entirely level ground. On the
arrival of the herdsman, who came at the hasty summons, Harpagus said
to him- "Astyages requires thee to take this child and lay him in
the wildest part of the hills, where he will be sure to die speedily.
And he bade me tell thee, that if thou dost not kill the boy, but
anyhow allowest him to escape, he will put thee to the most painful
of deaths. I myself am appointed to see the child exposed."
The herdsman on hearing this took the child in his arms, and went
back the way he had come till he reached the folds. There, providentially,
his wife, who had been expecting daily to be put to bed, had just,
during the absence of her husband, been delivered of a child. Both
the herdsman and his wife were uneasy on each other's account, the
former fearful because his wife was so near her time, the woman alarmed
because it was a new thing for her husband to be sent for by Harpagus.
When therefore he came into the house upon his return, his wife, seeing
him arrive so unexpectedly, was the first to speak, and begged to
know why Harpagus had sent for him in such a hurry. "Wife," said he,
"when I got to the town I saw and heard such things as I would to
heaven I had never seen such things as I would to heaven had never
happened to our masters. Every one was weeping in Harpagus's house.
It quite frightened me, but I went in. The moment I stepped inside,
what should I see but a baby lying on the floor, panting and whimpering,
and all covered with gold, and wrapped in clothes of such beautiful
colours. Harpagus saw me, and directly ordered me to take the child
my arms and carry him off, and what was I to do with him, think you?
Why, to lay him in the mountains, where the wild beasts are most plentiful.
And he told me it was the king himself that ordered it to be done,
and he threatened me with such dreadful things if I failed. So I took
the child up in my arms, and carried him along. I thought it might
be the son of one of the household slaves. I did wonder certainly
to see the gold and the beautiful baby-clothes, and I could not think
why there was such a weeping in Harpagus's house. Well, very soon,
as I came along, I got at the truth. They sent a servant with me to
show me the way out of the town, and to leave the baby in my hands;
and he told me that the child's mother is the king's daughter Mandane,
and his father Cambyses, the son of Cyrus; and that the king orders
him to be killed; and look, here the child is."
With this the herdsman uncovered the infant, and showed him to his
wife, who, when she saw him, and observed how fine a child and how
beautiful he was, burst into tears, and clinging to the knees of her
husband, besought him on no account to expose the babe; to which he
answered, that it was not possible for him to do otherwise, as Harpagus
would be sure to send persons to see and report to him, and he was
to suffer a most cruel death if he disobeyed. Failing thus in her
first attempt to persuade her husband, the woman spoke a second time,
saying, "If then there is no persuading thee, and a child must needs
be seen exposed upon the mountains, at least do thus. The child of
which I have just been delivered is stillborn; take it and lay it
on the hills, and let us bring up as our own the child of the daughter
of Astyages. So shalt thou not be charged with unfaithfulness to thy
lord, nor shall we have managed badly for ourselves. Our dead babe
will have a royal funeral, and this living child will not be deprived
of life."
It seemed to the herdsman that this advice was the best under the
circumstances. He therefore followed it without loss of time. The
child which he had intended to put to death he gave over to his wife,
and his own dead child he put in the cradle wherein he had carried
the other, clothing it first in all the other's costly attire, and
taking it in his arms he laid it in the wildest place of all the mountain-range.
When the child had been three days exposed, leaving one of his helpers
to watch the body, he started off for the city, and going straight
to Harpagus's house, declared himself ready to show the corpse of
the boy. Harpagus sent certain of his bodyguard, on whom he had the
firmest reliance, to view the body for him, and, satisfied with their
seeing it, gave orders for the funeral. Thus was the herdsman's child
buried, and the other child, who was afterwards known by the name
of Cyrus, was taken by the herdsman's wife, and brought up under a
different name.
When the boy was in his tenth year, an accident which I will now relate,
caused it to be discovered who he was. He was at play one day in the
village where the folds of the cattle were, along with the boys of
his own age, in the street. The other boys who were playing with him
chose the cowherd's son, as he was called, to be their king. He then
proceeded to order them about some he set to build him houses, others
he made his guards, one of them was to be the king's eye, another
had the office of carrying his messages; all had some task or other.
Among the boys there was one, the son of Artembares, a Mede of distinction,
who refused to do what Cyrus had set him. Cyrus told the other boys
to take him into custody, and when his orders were obeyed, he chastised
him most severely with the whip. The son of Artembares, as soon as
he was let go, full of rage at treatment so little befitting his rank,
hastened to the city and complained bitterly to his father of what
had been done to him by Cyrus. He did not, of course, say "Cyrus,"
by which name the boy was not yet known, but called him the son of
the king's cowherd. Artembares, in the heat of his passion, went to
Astyages, accompanied by his son, and made complaint of the gross
injury which had been done him. Pointing to the boy's shoulders, he
exclaimed, "Thus, oh! king, has thy slave, the son of a cowherd, heaped
insult upon us."
At this sight and these words Astyages, wishing to avenge the son
of Artembares for his father's sake, sent for the cowherd and his
boy. When they came together into his presence, fixing his eyes on
Cyrus, Astyages said, "Hast thou then, the son of so mean a fellow
as that, dared to behave thus rudely to the son of yonder noble, one
of the first in my court?" "My lord," replied the boy, "I only treated
him as he deserved. I was chosen king in play by the boys of our village,
because they thought me the best for it. He himself was one of the
boys who chose me. All the others did according to my orders; but
he refused, and made light of them, until at last he got his due reward.
If for this I deserve to suffer punishment, here I am ready to submit
to it."
While the boy was yet speaking Astyages was struck with a suspicion
who he was. He thought he saw something in the character of his face
like his own, and there was a nobleness about the answer he had made;
besides which his age seemed to tally with the time when his grandchild
was exposed. Astonished at all this, Astyages could not speak for
a while. At last, recovering himself with difficulty, and wishing
to be quit of Artembares, that he might examine the herdsman alone,
he said to the former, "I promise thee, Artembares, so to settle this
business that neither thou nor thy son shall have any cause to complain."
Artembares retired from his presence, and the attendants, at the bidding
of the king, led Cyrus into an inner apartment. Astyages then being
left alone with the herdsman, inquired of him where he had got the
boy, and who had given him to him; to which he made answer that the
lad was his own child, begotten by himself, and that the mother who
bore him was still alive with him in his house. Astyages remarked
that he was very ill-advised to bring himself into such great trouble,
and at the same time signed to his bodyguard to lay hold of him. Then
the herdsman, as they were dragging him to the rack, began at the
beginning, and told the whole story exactly as it happened, without
concealing anything, ending with entreaties and prayers to the king
to grant him forgiveness.
Astyages, having got the truth of the matter from the herdsman, was
very little further concerned about him, but with Harpagus he was
exceedingly enraged. The guards were bidden to summon him into the
presence, and on his appearance Astyages asked him, "By what death
was it, Harpagus, that thou slewest the child of my daughter whom
I gave into thy hands?" Harpagus, seeing the cowherd in the room,
did not betake himself to lies, lest he should be confuted and proved
false, but replied as follows:- "Sire, when thou gavest the child
into my hands I instantly considered with myself how I could contrive
to execute thy wishes, and yet, while guiltless of any unfaithfulness
towards thee, avoid imbruing my hands in blood which was in truth
thy daughter's and thine own. And this was how I contrived it. I sent
for this cowherd, and gave the child over to him, telling him that
by the king's orders it was to be put to death. And in this I told
no lie, for thou hadst so commanded. Moreover, when I gave him the
child, I enjoined him to lay it somewhere in the wilds of the mountains,
and to stay near and watch till it was dead; and I threatened him
with all manner of punishment if he failed. Afterwards, when he had
done according to all that I commanded him, and the child had died,
I sent some of the most trustworthy of my eunuchs, who viewed the
body for me, and then I had the child buried. This, sire, is the simple
truth, and this is the death by which the child died."
Thus Harpagus related the whole story in a plain, straightforward
way; upon which Astyages, letting no sign escape him of the anger
that he felt, began by repeating to him all that he had just heard
from the cowherd, and then concluded with saying, "So the boy is alive,
and it is best as it is. For the child's fate was a great sorrow to
me, and the reproaches of my daughter went to my heart. Truly fortune
has played us a good turn in this. Go thou home then, and send thy
son to be with the new comer, and to-night, as I mean to sacrifice
thank-offerings for the child's safety to the gods to whom such honour
is due, I look to have thee a guest at the banquet."
Harpagus, on hearing this, made obeisance, and went home rejoicing
to find that his disobedience had turned out so fortunately, and that,
instead of being punished, he was invited to a banquet given in honour
of the happy occasion. The moment he reached home he called for his
son, a youth of about thirteen, the only child of his parents, and
bade him go to the palace, and do whatever Astyages should direct.
Then, in the gladness of his heart, he went to his wife and told her
all that had happened. Astyages, meanwhile, took the son of Harpagus,
and slew him, after which he cut him in pieces, and roasted some portions
before the fire, and boiled others; and when all were duly prepared,
he kept them ready for use. The hour for the banquet came, and Harpagus
appeared, and with him the other guests, and all sat down to the feast.
Astyages and the rest of the guests had joints of meat served up to
them; but on the table of Harpagus, nothing was placed except the
flesh of his own son. This was all put before him, except the hands
and feet and head, which were laid by themselves in a covered basket.
When Harpagus seemed to have eaten his fill, Astyages called out to
him to know how he had enjoyed the repast. On his reply that he had
enjoyed it excessively, they whose business it was brought him the
basket, in which were the hands and feet and head of his son, and
bade him open it, and take out what he pleased. Harpagus accordingly
uncovered the basket, and saw within it the remains of his son. The
sight, however, did not scare him, or rob him of his self-possession.
Being asked by Astyages if he knew what beast's flesh it was that
he had been eating, he answered that he knew very well, and that whatever
the king did was agreeable. After this reply, he took with him such
morsels of the flesh as were uneaten, and went home, intending, as
I conceive, to collect the remains and bury them.
Such was the mode in which Astyages punished Harpagus: afterwards,
proceeding to consider what he should do with Cyrus, his grandchild,
he sent for the Magi, who formerly interpreted his dream in the way
which alarmed him so much, and asked them how they had expounded it.
They answered, without varying from what they had said before, that
"the boy must needs be a king if he grew up, and did not die too soon."
Then Astyages addressed them thus: "The boy has escaped, and lives;
he has been brought up in the country, and the lads of the village
where he lives have made him their king. All that kings commonly do
he has done. He has had his guards, and his doorkeepers, and his messengers,
and all the other usual officers. Tell me, then, to what, think you,
does all this tend?" The Magi answered, "If the boy survives, and
has ruled as a king without any craft or contrivance, in that case
we bid thee cheer up, and feel no more alarm on his account. He will
not reign a second time. For we have found even oracles sometimes
fulfilled in an unimportant way; and dreams, still oftener, have wondrously
mean accomplishments." "It is what I myself most incline to think,"
Astyages rejoined; "the boy having been already king, the dream is
out, and I have nothing more to fear from him. Nevertheless, take
good heed and counsel me the best you can for the safety of my house
and your own interests." "Truly," said the Magi in reply, "it very
much concerns our interests that thy kingdom be firmly established;
for if it went to this boy it would pass into foreign hands, since
he is a Persian: and then we Medes should lose our freedom, and be
quite despised by the Persians, as being foreigners. But so long as
thou, our fellow-countryman, art on the throne, all manner of honours
are ours, and we are even not without some share in the government.
Much reason therefore have we to forecast well for thee and for thy
sovereignty. If then we saw any cause for present fear, be sure we
would not keep it back from thee. But truly we are persuaded that
the dream has had its accomplishment in this harmless way; and so
our own fears being at rest, we recommend thee to banish thine. As
for the boy, our advice is that thou send him away to Persia, to his
father and mother."
Astyages heard their answer with pleasure, and calling Cyrus into
his presence, said to him, "My child, I was led to do thee a wrong
by a dream which has come to nothing: from that wrong thou wert saved
by thy own good fortune. Go now with a light heart to Persia; I will
provide thy escort. Go, and when thou gettest to thy journey's end,
thou wilt behold thy father and thy mother, quite other people from
Mitradates the cowherd and his wife."
With these words Astyages dismissed his grandchild. On his arrival
at the house of Cambyses, he was received by his parents, who, when
they learnt who he was, embraced him heartily, having always been
convinced that he died almost as soon as he was born. So they asked
him by what means he had chanced to escape; and he told them how that
till lately he had known nothing at all about the matter, but had
been mistaken- oh! so widely!- and how that he had learnt his history
by the way, as he came from Media. He had been quite sure that he
was the son of the king's cowherd, but on the road the king's escort
had told him all the truth; and then he spoke of the cowherd's wife
who had brought him up, and filled his whole talk with her praises;
in all that he had to tell them about himself, it was always Cyno-
Cyno was everything. So it happened that his parents, catching the
name at his mouth, and wishing to persuade the Persians that there
was a special providence in his preservation, spread the report that
Cyrus, when he was exposed, was suckled by a bitch. This was the sole
origin of the rumour.
Afterwards, when Cyrus grew to manhood, and became known as the bravest
and most popular of all his compeers, Harpagus, who was bent on revenging
himself upon Astyages, began to pay him court by gifts and messages.
His own rank was too humble for him to hope to obtain vengeance without
some foreign help. When therefore he saw Cyrus, whose wrongs were
so similar to his own, growing up expressly (as it were) to be the
avenger whom he needed, he set to work to procure his support and
aid in the matter. He had already paved the way for his designs, by
persuading, severally, the great Median nobles, whom the harsh rule
of their monarch had offended, that the best plan would be to put
Cyrus at their head, and dethrone Astyages. These preparations made,
Harpagus, being now ready for revolt, was anxious to make known his
wishes to Cyrus, who still lived in Persia; but as the roads between
Media and Persia were guarded, he had to contrive a means of sending
word secretly, which he did in the following way. He took a hare,
and cutting open its belly without hurting the fur, he slipped in
a letter containing what he wanted to say, and then carefully sewing
up the paunch, he gave the hare to one of his most faithful slaves,
disguising him as a hunter with nets, and sent him off to Persia to
take the game as a present to Cyrus, bidding him tell Cyrus, by word
of mouth, to paunch the animal himself, and let no one be present
at the time.
All was done as he wished, and Cyrus, on cutting the hare open, found
the letter inside, and read as follows:- "Son of Cambyses, the gods
assuredly watch over thee, or never wouldst thou have passed through
thy many wonderful adventures- now is the time when thou mayst avenge
thyself upon Astyages, thy murderer. He willed thy death, remember;
to the gods and to me thou owest that thou art still alive. I think
thou art not ignorant of what he did to thee, nor of what I suffered
at his hands because I committed thee to the cowherd, and did not
put thee to death. Listen now to me, and obey my words, and all the
empire of Astyages shall be thine. Raise the standard of revolt in
Persia, and then march straight on Media. Whether Astyages appoint
me to command his forces against thee, or whether he appoint any other
of the princes of the Medes, all will go as thou couldst wish. They
will be the first to fall away from him, and joining thy side, exert
themselves to overturn his power. Be sure that on our part all is
ready; wherefore do thou thy part, and that speedily."
Cyrus, on receiving the tidings contained in this letter, set himself
to consider how he might best persuade the Persians to revolt. After
much thought, he hit on the following as the most expedient course:
he wrote what he thought proper upon a roll, and then calling an assembly
of the Persians, he unfolded the roll, and read out of it that Astyages
appointed him their general. "And now," said he, "since it is so,
I command you to go and bring each man his reaping-hook." With these
words he dismissed the assembly.
Now the Persian nation is made up of many tribes. Those which Cyrus
assembled and persuaded to revolt from the Medes were the principal
ones on which all the others are dependent. These are the Pasargadae,
the Maraphians, and the Maspians, of whom the Pasargadae are the noblest.
The Achaemenidae, from which spring all the Perseid kings, is one
of their clans. The rest of the Persian tribes are the following:
the Panthialaeans, the Derusiaeans, the Germanians, who are engaged
in husbandry; the Daans, the Mardians, the Dropicans, and the Sagartians,
who are nomads.
When, in obedience to the orders which they had received, the Persians
came with their reaping-hooks, Cyrus led them to a tract of ground,
about eighteen or twenty furlongs each way, covered with thorns, and
ordered them to clear it before the day was out. They accomplished
their task; upon which he issued a second order to them, to take the
bath the day following, and again come to him. Meanwhile he collected
together all his father's flocks, both sheep and goats, and all his
oxen, and slaughtered them, and made ready to give an entertainment
to the entire Persian army. Wine, too, and bread of the choicest kinds
were prepared for the occasion. When the morrow came, and the Persians
appeared, he bade them recline upon the grass, and enjoy themselves.
After the feast was over, he requested them to tell him "which they
liked best, to-day's work, or yesterday's?" They answered that "the
contrast was indeed strong: yesterday brought them nothing but what
was bad, to-day everything that was good." Cyrus instantly seized
on their reply, and laid bare his purpose in these words: "Ye men
of Persia, thus do matters stand with you. If you choose to hearken
to my words, you may enjoy these and ten thousand similar delights,
and never condescend to any slavish toil; but if you will not hearken,
prepare yourselves for unnumbered toils as hard as yesterday's. Now
therefore follow my bidding, and be free. For myself I feel that I
am destined by Providence to undertake your liberation; and you, I
am sure, are no whit inferior to the Medes in anything, least of all
in bravery. Revolt, therefore, from Astyages, without a moment's delay."
The Persians, who had long been impatient of the Median dominion,
now that they had found a leader, were delighted to shake off the
yoke. Meanwhile Astyages, informed of the doings of Cyrus, sent a
messenger to summon him to his presence. Cyrus replied, "Tell Astyages
that I shall appear in his presence sooner than he will like." Astyages,
when he received this message, instantly armed all his subjects, and,
as if God had deprived him of his senses, appointed Harpagus to be
their general, forgetting how greatly he had injured him. So when
the two armies met and engaged, only a few of the Medes, who were
not in the secret, fought; others deserted openly to the Persians;
while the greater number counterfeited fear, and fled.
Astyages, on learning the shameful flight and dispersion of his army,
broke out into threats against Cyrus, saying, "Cyrus shall nevertheless
have no reason to rejoice"; and directly he seized the Magian interpreters,
who had persuaded him to allow Cyrus to escape, and impaled them;
after which, he armed all the Medes who had remained in the city,
both young and old; and leading them against the Persians, fought
a battle, in which he was utterly defeated, his army being destroyed,
and he himself falling into the enemy's hands.
Harpagus then, seeing him a prisoner, came near, and exulted over
him with many jibes and jeers. Among other cutting speeches which
he made, he alluded to the supper where the flesh of his son was given
him to eat, and asked Astyages to answer him now, how he enjoyed being
a slave instead of a king? Astyages looked in his face, and asked
him in return, why he claimed as his own the achievements of Cyrus?
"Because," said Harpagus, "it was my letter which made him revolt,
and so I am entitled to all the credit of the enterprise." Then Astyages
declared that "in that case he was at once the silliest and the most
unjust of men: the silliest, if when it was in his power to put the
crown on his own head, as it must assuredly have been, if the revolt
was entirely his doing, he had placed it on the head of another; the
most unjust, if on account of that supper he had brought slavery on
the Medes. For, supposing that he was obliged to invest another with
the kingly power, and not retain it himself, yet justice required
that a Mede, rather than a Persian, should receive the dignity. Now,
however, the Medes, who had been no parties to the wrong of which
he complained, were made slaves instead of lords, and slaves moreover
of those who till recently had been their subjects."
Thus after a reign of thirty-five years, Astyages lost his crown,
and the Medes, in consequence of his cruelty, were brought under the
rule of the Persians. Their empire over the parts of Asia beyond the
Halys had lasted one hundred and twenty-eight years, except during
the time when the Scythians had the dominion. Afterwards the Medes
repented of their submission, and revolted from Darius, but were defeated
in battle, and again reduced to subjection. Now, however, in the time
of Astyages, it was the Persians who under Cyrus revolted from the
Medes, and became thenceforth the rulers of Asia. Cyrus kept Astyages
at his court during the remainder of his life, without doing him any
further injury. Such then were the circumstances of the birth and
bringing up of Cyrus, and such were the steps by which he mounted
the throne. It was at a later date that he was attacked by Croesus,
and overthrew him, as I have related in an earlier portion of this
history. The overthrow of Croesus made him master of the whole of
Asia.
The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following:
they have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider
the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not
believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks
imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest
mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Jupiter, which is the name
they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise offer
to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds.
These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient
times. At a later period they began the worship of Urania, which they
borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. Mylitta is the name by which
the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta, and
the Persians Mitra.
To these gods the Persians offer sacrifice in the following manner:
they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations; there is no
sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no consecrated barley-cake;
but the man who wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of
ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name
of the god to whom he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban
encircled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is
not allowed to pray for blessings on himself alone, but he prays for
the welfare of the king, and of the whole Persian people, among whom
he is of necessity included. He cuts the victim in pieces, and having
boiled the flesh, he lays it out upon the tenderest herbage that he
can find, trefoil especially. When all is ready, one of the Magi comes
forward and chants a hymn, which they say recounts the origin of the
gods. It is not lawful to offer sacrifice unless there is a Magus
present. After waiting a short time the sacrificer carries the flesh
of the victim away with him, and makes whatever use of it he may please.
Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is
their birthday. It is customary to have the board furnished on that
day with an ampler supply than common. The richer Persians cause an
ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass to be baked whole and so served up
to them: the poorer classes use instead the smaller kinds of cattle.
They eat little solid food but abundance of dessert, which is set
on table a few dishes at a time; this it is which makes them say that
"the Greeks, when they eat, leave off hungry, having nothing worth
mention served up to them after the meats; whereas, if they had more
put before them, they would not stop eating." They are very fond of
wine, and drink it in large quantities. To vomit or obey natural calls
in the presence of another is forbidden among them. Such are their
customs in these matters.
It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight
when they are drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober,
the decision to which they came the night before is put before them
by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then
approved of, they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes,
however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case
they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.
When they meet each other in the streets, you may know if the persons
meeting are of equal rank by the following token: if they are, instead
of speaking, they kiss each other on the lips. In the case where one
is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek;
where the difference of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself
upon the ground. Of nations, they honour most their nearest neighbours,
whom they esteem next to themselves; those who live beyond these they
honour in the second degree; and so with the remainder, the further
they are removed, the less the esteem in which they hold them. The
reason is that they look upon themselves as very greatly superior
in all respects to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching
to excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence it
comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be the most
degraded of mankind. Under the dominion of the Medes, the several
nations of the empire exercised authority over each other in this
order. The Medes were lords over all, and governed the nations upon
their borders, who in their turn governed the States beyond, who likewise
bore rule over the nations which adjoined on them. And this is the
order which the Persians also follow in their distribution of honour;
for that people, like the Medes, has a progressive scale of administration
and government.
There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign customs as the
Persians. Thus, they have taken the dress of the Medes, considering
it superior to their own; and in war they wear the Egyptian breastplate.
As soon as they hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their own:
and hence, among other novelties, they have learnt unnatural lust
from the Greeks. Each of them has several wives, and a still larger
number of concubines.
Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded as the greatest proof of manly
excellence to be the father of many sons. Every year the king sends
rich gifts to the man who can show the largest number: for they hold
that number is strength. Their sons are carefully instructed from
their fifth to their twentieth year, in three things alone,- to ride,
to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Until their fifth year they
are not allowed to come into the sight of their father, but pass their
lives with the women. This is done that, if the child die young, the
father may not be afflicted by its loss.
To my mind it is a wise rule, as also is the following- that the king
shall not put any one to death for a single fault, and that none of
the Persians shall visit a single fault in a slave with any extreme
penalty; but in every case the services of the offender shall be set
against his misdoings; and, if the latter be found to outweigh the
former, the aggrieved party shall then proceed to punishment.
The Persians maintain that never yet did any one kill his own father
or mother; but in all such cases they are quite sure that, if matters
were sifted to the bottom, it would be found that the child was either
a changeling or else the fruit of adultery; for it is not likely,
they say, that the real father should perish by the hands of his child.
They hold it unlawful to talk of anything which it is unlawful to
do. The most disgraceful thing in the world, they think, is to tell
a lie; the next worst, to owe a debt: because, among other reasons,
the debtor is obliged to tell lies. If a Persian has the leprosy he
is not allowed to enter into a city, or to have any dealings with
the other Persians; he must, they say, have sinned against the sun.
Foreigners attacked by this disorder, are forced to leave the country:
even white pigeons are often driven away, as guilty of the same offence.
They never defile a river with the secretions of their bodies, nor
even wash their hands in one; nor will they allow others to do so,
as they have a great reverence for rivers. There is another peculiarity,
which the Persians themselves have never noticed, but which has not
escaped my observation. Their names, which are expressive of some
bodily or mental excellence, all end with the same letter- the letter
which is called San by the Dorians, and Sigma by the Ionians. Any
one who examines will find that the Persian names, one and all without
exception, end with this letter.
Thus much I can declare of the Persians with entire certainty, from
my own actual knowledge. There is another custom which is spoken of
with reserve, and not openly, concerning their dead. It is said that
the body of a male Persian is never buried, until it has been torn
either by a dog or a bird of prey. That the Magi have this custom
is beyond a doubt, for they practise it without any concealment. The
dead bodies are covered with wax, and then buried in the ground.
The Magi are a very peculiar race, different entirely from the Egyptian
priests, and indeed from all other men whatsoever. The Egyptian priests
make it a point of religion not to kill any live animals except those
which they offer in sacrifice. The Magi, on the contrary, kill animals
of all kinds with their own hands, excepting dogs and men. They even
seem to take a delight in the employment, and kill, as readily as
they do other animals, ants and snakes, and such like flying or creeping
things. However, since this has always been their custom, let them
keep to it. I return to my former narrative.
Immediately after the conquest of Lydia by the Persians, the Ionian
and Aeolian Greeks sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, and prayed
to become his lieges on the footing which they had occupied under
Croesus. Cyrus listened attentively to their proposals, and answered
them by a fable. "There was a certain piper," he said, "who was walking
one day by the seaside, when he espied some fish; so he began to pipe
to them, imagining they would come out to him upon the land. But as
he found at last that his hope was vain, he took a net, and enclosing
a great draught of fishes, drew them ashore. The fish then began to
leap and dance; but the piper said, 'Cease your dancing now, as you
did not choose to come and dance when I piped to you.'" Cyrus gave
this answer to the Ionians and Aeolians, because, when he urged them
by his messengers to revolt from Croesus, they refused; but now, when
his work was done, they came to offer their allegiance. It was in
anger, therefore, that he made them this reply. The Ionians, on hearing
it, set to work to fortify their towns, and held meetings at the Panionium,
which were attended by all excepting the Milesians, with whom Cyrus
had concluded a separate treaty, by which he allowed them the terms
they had formerly obtained from Croesus. The other Ionians resolved,
with one accord, to send ambassadors to Sparta to implore assistance.
Now the Ionians of Asia, who meet at the Panionium, have built their
cities in a region where the air and climate are the most beautiful
in the whole world: for no other region is equally blessed with Ionia,
neither above it nor below it, nor east nor west of it. For in other
countries either the climate is over cold and damp, or else the heat
and drought are sorely oppressive. The Ionians do not all speak the
same language, but use in different places four different dialects.
Towards the south their first city is Miletus, next to which lie Myus
and Priene; all these three are in Caria and have the same dialect.
Their cities in Lydia are the following: Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus,
Teos, Clazomenae, and Phocaea. The inhabitants of these towns have
none of the peculiarities of speech which belong to the three first-named
cities, but use a dialect of their own. There remain three other Ionian
towns, two situate in isles, namely, Samos and Chios; and one upon
the mainland, which is Erythrae. Of these Chios and Erythrae have
the same dialect, while Samos possesses a language peculiar to itself.
Such are the four varieties of which I spoke.
Of the Ionians at this period, one people, the Milesians, were in
no danger of attack, as Cyrus had received them into alliance. The
islanders also had as yet nothing to fear, since Phoenicia was still
independent of Persia, and the Persians themselves were not a seafaring
people. The Milesians had separated from the common cause solely on
account of the extreme weakness of the Ionians: for, feeble as the
power of the entire Hellenic race was at that time, of all its tribes
the Ionic was by far the feeblest and least esteemed, not possessing
a single State of any mark excepting Athens. The Athenians and most
of the other Ionic States over the world, went so far in their dislike
of the name as actually to lay it aside; and even at the present day
the greater number of them seem to me to be ashamed of it. But the
twelve cities in Asia have always gloried in the appellation; they
gave the temple which they built for themselves the name of the Panionium,
and decreed that it should not be open to any of the other Ionic States;
no State, however, except Smyrna, has craved admission to it.
In the same way the Dorians of the region which is now called the
Pentapolis, but which was formerly known as the Doric Hexapolis, exclude
all their Dorian neighbours from their temple, the Triopium: nay,
they have even gone so far as to shut out from it certain of their
own body who were guilty of an offence against the customs of the
place. In the games which were anciently celebrated in honour of the
Triopian Apollo, the prizes given to the victors were tripods of brass;
and the rule was that these tripods should not be carried away from
the temple, but should then and there be dedicated to the god. Now
a man of Halicarnassus, whose name was Agasicles, being declared victor
in the games, in open contempt of the law, took the tripod home to
his own house and there hung it against the wall. As a punishment
for this fault, the five other cities, Lindus, Ialyssus, Cameirus,
Cos, and Cnidus, deprived the sixth city, Halicarnassus, of the right
of entering the temple.
The Ionians founded twelve cities in Asia, and refused to enlarge
the number, on account (as I imagine) of their having been divided
into twelve States when they lived in the Peloponnese; just as the
Achaeans, who drove them out, are at the present day. The first city
of the Achaeans after Sicyon, is Pellene, next to which are Aegeira,
Aegae upon the Crathis, a stream which is never dry, and from which
the Italian Crathis received its name,- Bura, Helice- where the Ionians
took refuge on their defeat by the Achaean invaders- Aegium, Rhypes,
Patreis, Phareis, Olenus on the Peirus, which is a large river- Dyme
and Tritaeeis, all sea-port towns except the last two, which lie up
the country.
These are the twelve divisions of what is now Achaea, and was formerly
Ionia; and it was owing to their coming from a country so divided
that the Ionians, on reaching Asia, founded their twelve States: for
it is the height of folly to maintain that these Ionians are more
Ionian than the rest, or in any respect better born, since the truth
is that no small portion of them were Abantians from Euboea, who are
not even Ionians in name; and, besides, there were mixed up with the
emigration Minyae from Orchomenus, Cadmeians, Dryopians, Phocians
from the several cities of Phocis, Molossians, Arcadian Pelasgi, Dorians
from Epidaurus, and many other distinct tribes. Even those who came
from the Prytaneum of Athens, and reckon themselves the purest Ionians
of all, brought no wives with them to the new country, but married
Carian girls, whose fathers they had slain. Hence these women made
a law, which they bound themselves by an oath to observe, and which
they handed down to their daughters after them, "That none should
ever sit at meat with her husband, or call him by his name"; because
the invaders slew their fathers, their husbands, and their sons, and
then forced them to become their wives. It was at Miletus that these
events took place.
The kings, too, whom they set over them, were either Lycians, of the
blood of Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, or Pylian Caucons of the blood
of Codrus, son of Melanthus; or else from both those families. But
since these Ionians set more store by the name than any of the others,
let them pass for the pure-bred Ionians; though truly all are Ionians
who have their origin from Athens, and keep the Apaturia. This is
a festival which all the Ionians celebrate, except the Ephesians and
the Colophonians, whom a certain act of bloodshed excludes from it.
The Panionium is a place in Mycale, facing the north, which was chosen
by the common voice of the Ionians and made sacred to Heliconian Neptune.
Mycale itself is a promontory of the mainland, stretching out westward
towards Samos, in which the Ionians assemble from all their States
to keep the feast of the Panionia. The names of festivals, not only
among the Ionians but among all the Greeks, end, like the Persian
proper names, in one and the same letter.
The above-mentioned, then, are the twelve towns of the Ionians. The
Aeolic cities are the following:- Cyme, called also Phriconis, Larissa,
Neonteichus, Temnus, Cilla, Notium, Aegiroessa, Pitane, Aegaeae, Myrina,
and Gryneia. These are the eleven ancient cities of the Aeolians.
Originally, indeed, they had twelve cities upon the mainland, like
the Ionians, but the Ionians deprived them of Smyrna, one of the number.
The soil of Aeolis is better than that of Ionia, but the climate is
less agreeable.
The following is the way in which the loss of Smyrna happened. Certain
men of Colophon had been engaged in a sedition there, and being the
weaker party, were driven by the others into banishment. The Smyrnaeans
received the fugitives, who, after a time, watching their opportunity,
while the inhabitants were celebrating a feast to Bacchus outside
the walls, shut to the gates, and so got possession of the town. The
Aeolians of the other States came to their aid, and terms were agreed
on between the parties, the Ionians consenting to give up all the
moveables, and the Aeolians making a surrender of the place. The expelled
Smyrnaeans were distributed among the other States of the Aeolians,
and were everywhere admitted to citizenship.
These, then, were all the Aeolic cities upon the mainland, with the
exception of those about Mount Ida, which made no part of this confederacy.
As for the islands, Lesbos contains five cities. Arisba, the sixth,
was taken by the Methymnaeans, their kinsmen, and the inhabitants
reduced to slavery. Tenedos contains one city, and there is another
which is built on what are called the Hundred Isles. The Aeolians
of Lesbos and Tenedos, like the Ionian islanders, had at this time
nothing to fear. The other Aeolians decided in their common assembly
to follow the Ionians, whatever course they should pursue.
When the deputies of the Ionians and Aeolians, who had journeyed with
all speed to Sparta, reached the city, they chose one of their number,
Pythermus, a Phocaean, to be their spokesman. In order to draw together
as large an audience as possible, he clothed himself in a purple garment,
and so attired stood forth to speak. In a long discourse he besought
the Spartans to come to the assistance of his countrymen, but they
were not to be persuaded, and voted against sending any succour. The
deputies accordingly went their way, while the Lacedaemonians, notwithstanding
the refusal which they had given to the prayer of the deputation,
despatched a penteconter to the Asiatic coast with certain Spartans
on board, for the purpose, as I think, of watching Cyrus and Ionia.
These men, on their arrival at Phocaea, sent to Sardis Lacrines, the
most distinguished of their number, to prohibit Cyrus, in the name
of the Lacedaemonians, from offering molestation to any city of Greece,
since they would not allow it.
Cyrus is said, on hearing the speech of the herald, to have asked
some Greeks who were standing by, "Who these Lacedaemonians were,
and what was their number, that they dared to send him such a notice?"
When he had received their reply, he turned to the Spartan herald
and said, "I have never yet been afraid of any men, who have a set
place in the middle of their city, where they come together to cheat
each other and forswear themselves. If I live, the Spartans shall
have troubles enough of their own to talk of, without concerning themselves
about the Ionians." Cyrus intended these words as a reproach against
all the Greeks, because of their having market-places where they buy
and sell, which is a custom unknown to the Persians, who never make
purchases in open marts, and indeed have not in their whole country
a single market-place.
After this interview Cyrus quitted Sardis, leaving the city under
the charge of Tabalus, a Persian, but appointing Pactyas, a native,
to collect the treasure belonging to Croesus and the other Lydians,
and bring after him. Cyrus himself proceeded towards Agbatana, carrying
Croesus along with him, not regarding the Ionians as important enough
to be his immediate object. Larger designs were in his mind. He wished
to war in person against Babylon, the Bactrians, the Sacae, and Egypt;
he therefore determined to assign to one of his generals the task
of conquering the Ionians.
No sooner, however, was Cyrus gone from Sardis than Pactyas induced
his countrymen to rise in open revolt against him and his deputy Tabalus.
With the vast treasures at his disposal he then went down to the sea,
and employed them in hiring mercenary troops, while at the same time
he engaged the people of the coast to enrol themselves in his army.
He then marched upon Sardis, where he besieged Tabalus, who shut himself
up in the citadel.
When Cyrus, on his way to Agbatana, received these tidings, he returned
to Croesus and said, "Where will all this end, Croesus, thinkest thou?
It seemeth that these Lydians will not cease to cause trouble both
to themselves and others. I doubt me if it were not best to sell them
all for slaves. Methinks what I have now done is as if a man were
to 'kill the father and then spare the child.' Thou, who wert something
more than a father to thy people, I have seized and carried off, and
to that people I have entrusted their city. Can I then feel surprise
at their rebellion?" Thus did Cyrus open to Croesus his thoughts;
whereat the latter, full of alarm lest Cyrus should lay Sardis in
ruins, replied as follows: "Oh! my king, thy words are reasonable;
but do not, I beseech thee, give full vent to thy anger, nor doom
to destruction an ancient city, guiltless alike of the past and of
the present trouble. I caused the one, and in my own person now pay
the forfeit. Pactyas has caused the other, he to whom thou gavest
Sardis in charge; let him bear the punishment. Grant, then, forgiveness
to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never rebelling against
thee, or alarming thee more, send and forbid them to keep any weapons
of war, command them to wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put
buskins upon their legs, and make them bring up their sons to cithern-playing,
harping, and shop-keeping. So wilt thou soon see them become women
instead of men, and there will be no more fear of their revolting
from thee."
Croesus thought the Lydians would even so be better off than if they
were sold for slaves, and therefore gave the above advice to Cyrus,
knowing that, unless he brought forward some notable suggestion, he
would not be able to persuade him to alter his mind. He was likewise
afraid lest, after escaping the danger which now pressed, the Lydians
at some future time might revolt from the Persians and so bring themselves
to ruin. The advice pleased Cyrus, who consented to forego his anger
and do as Croesus had said. Thereupon he summoned to his presence
a certain Mede, Mazares by name, and charged him to issue orders to
the Lydians in accordance with the terms of Croesus' discourse. Further,
he commanded him to sell for slaves all who had joined the Lydians
in their attack upon Sardis, and above aught else to be sure that
he brought Pactyas with him alive on his return. Having given these
orders Cyrus continued his journey towards the Persian territory.
Pactyas, when news came of the near approach of the army sent against
him, fled in terror to Cyme. Mazares, therefore, the Median general,
who had marched on Sardis with a detachment of the army of Cyrus,
finding on his arrival that Pactyas and his troops were gone, immediately
entered the town. And first of all he forced the Lydians to obey the
orders of his master, and change (as they did from that time) their
entire manner of living. Next, he despatched messengers to Cyme, and
required to have Pactyas delivered up to him. On this the Cymaeans
resolved to send to Branchidae and ask the advice of the god. Branchidae
is situated in the territory of Miletus, above the port of Panormus.
There was an oracle there, established in very ancient times, which
both the Ionians and Aeolians were wont often to consult.
Hither therefore the Cymaeans sent their deputies to make inquiry
at the shrine, "What the gods would like them to do with the Lydian,
Pactyas?" The oracle told them, in reply, to give him up to the Persians.
With this answer the messengers returned, and the people of Cymd were
ready to surrender him accordingly; but as they were preparing to
do so, Aristodicus, son of Heraclides, a citizen of distinction, hindered
them. He declared that he distrusted the response, and believed that
the messengers had reported it falsely; until at last another embassy,
of which Aristodicus himself made part, was despatched, to repeat
the former inquiry concerning Pactyas.
On their arrival at the shrine of the god, Aristodicus, speaking on
behalf of the whole body, thus addressed the oracle: "Oh! king, Pactyas
the Lydian, threatened by the Persians with a violent death, has come
to us for sanctuary, and lo, they ask him at our hands, calling upon
our nation to deliver him up. Now, though we greatly dread the Persian
power, yet have we not been bold to give up our suppliant, till we
have certain knowledge of thy mind, what thou wouldst have us to do."
The oracle thus questioned gave the same answer as before, bidding
them surrender Pactyas to the Persians; whereupon Aristodicus, who
had come prepared for such an answer, proceeded to make the circuit
of the temple, and to take all the nests of young sparrows and other
birds that he could find about the building. As he was thus employed,
a voice, it is said, came forth from the inner sanctuary, addressing
Aristodicus in these words: "Most impious of men, what is this thou
hast the face to do? Dost thou tear my suppliants from my temple?"
Aristodicus, at no loss for a reply, rejoined, "Oh, king, art thou
so ready to protect thy suppliants, and dost thou command the Cymaeans
to give up a suppliant?" "Yes," returned the god, "I do command it,
that so for the impiety you may the sooner perish, and not come here
again to consult my oracle about the surrender of suppliants."
On the receipt of this answer the Cymaeans, unwilling to bring the
threatened destruction on themselves by giving up the man, and afraid
of having to endure a siege if they continued to harbour him, sent
Pactyas away to Mytilene. On this Mazares despatched envoys to the
Mytilenaeans to demand the fugitive of them, and they were preparing
to give him up for a reward (I cannot say with certainty how large,
as the bargain was not completed), when the Cymaeans hearing what
the Mytilenaeans were about, sent a vessel to Lesbos, and conveyed
away Pactyas to Chios. From hence it was that he was surrendered.
The Chians dragged him from the temple of Minerva Poliuchus and gave
him up to the Persians, on condition of receiving the district of
Atarneus, a tract of Mysia opposite to Lesbos, as the price of the
surrender. Thus did Pactyas fall into the hands of his pursuers, who
kept a strict watch upon him that they might be able to produce him
before Cyrus. For a long time afterwards none of the Chians would
use the barley of Atarneus to place on the heads of victims, or make
sacrificial cakes of the corn grown there, but the whole produce of
the land was excluded from all their temples.
Meanwhile Mazares, after he had recovered Pactyas from the Chians,
made war upon those who had taken part in the attack on Tabalus, and
in the first place took Priene and sold the inhabitants for slaves,
after which he overran the whole plain of the Maeander and the district
of Magnesia, both of which he gave up for pillage to the soldiery.
He then suddenly sickened and died.
Upon his death Harpagus was sent down to the coast to succeed to his
command. He also was of the race of the Medes, being the man whom
the Median king, Astyages, feasted at the unholy banquet, and who
lent his aid to Place Cyrus upon the throne. Appointed by Cyrus to
conduct the war in these parts, he entered Ionia, and took the cities
by means of mounds. Forcing the enemy to shut themselves up within
their defences, he heaped mounds of earth against their walls, and
thus carried the towns. Phocaea was the city against which he directed
his first attack.
Now the Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks who performed long
voyages, and it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with the Adriatic
and with Tyrrhenia, with Iberia, and the city of Tartessus. The vessel
which they used in their voyages was not the round-built merchant-ship,
but the long penteconter. On their arrival at Tartessus, the king
of the country, whose name was Arganthonius, took a liking to them.
This monarch reigned over the Tartessians for eighty years, and lived
to be a hundred and twenty years old. He regarded the Phocaeans with
so much favour as, at first, to beg them to quit Ionia and settle
in whatever part of his country they liked. Afterwards, finding that
he could not prevail upon them to agree to this, and hearing that
the Mede was growing great in their neighbourhood, he gave them money
to build a wall about their town, and certainly he must have given
it with a bountiful hand, for the town is many furlongs in circuit,
and the wall is built entirely of great blocks of stone skilfully
fitted together. The wall, then, was built by his aid.
Harpagus, having advanced against the Phocaeans with his army, laid
siege to their city, first, however, offering them terms. "It would
content him," he said, "if the Phocaeans would agree to throw down
one of their battlements, and dedicate one dwelling-house to the king."
The Phocaeans, sorely vexed at the thought of becoming slaves, asked
a single day to deliberate on the answer they should return, and besought
Harpagus during that day to draw off his forces from the walls. Harpagus
replied, "that he understood well enough what they were about to do,
but nevertheless he would grant their request." Accordingly the troops
were withdrawn, and the Phocaeans forthwith took advantage of their
absence to launch their penteconters, and put on board their wives
and children, their household goods, and even the images of their
gods, with all the votive offerings from the fanes except the paintings
and the works in stone or brass, which were left behind. With the
rest they embarked, and putting to sea, set sail for Chios. The Persians,
on their return, took possession of an empty town.
Arrived at Chios, the Phocaeans made offers for the purchase of the
islands called the Oenussae, but the Chians refused to part with them,
fearing lest the Phocaeans should establish a factory there, and exclude
their merchants from the commerce of those seas. On their refusal,
the Phocaeans, as Arganthonius was now dead, made up their minds to
sail to Cyrnus (Corsica), where, twenty years before, following the
direction of an oracle, they had founded a city, which was called
Alalia. Before they set out, however, on this voyage, they sailed
once more to Phocaea, and surprising the Persian troops appointed
by Harpagus to garrison town, put them all to the sword. After this
laid the heaviest curses on the man who should draw back and forsake
the armament; and having dropped a heavy mass of iron into the sea,
swore never to return to Phocaea till that mass reappeared upon the
surface. Nevertheless, as they were preparing to depart for Cyrnus,
more than half of their number were seized with such sadness and so
great a longing to see once more their city and their ancient homes,
that they broke the oath by which they had bound themselves and sailed
back to Phocaea.
The rest of the Phocaeans who kept their oath, proceeded without stopping
upon their voyage, and when they came to Cyrnus established themselves
along with the earlier settlers at Alalia and built temples in the
place. For five years they annoyed their neighbours by plundering
and pillaging on all sides, until at length the Carthaginians and
Tyrrhenians leagued against them, and sent each a fleet of sixty ships
to attack the town. The Phocaeans, on their part, manned all their
vessels, sixty in number, and met their enemy on the Sardinian sea.
In the engagement which followed the Phocaeans were victorious, but
their success was only a sort of Cadmeian victory.' They lost forty
ships in the battle, and the twenty which remained came out of the
engagement with beaks so bent and blunted as to be no longer serviceable.
The Phocaeans therefore sailed back again to Alalia, and taking their
wives and children on board, with such portion of their goods and
chattels as the vessels could bear, bade adieu to Cyrnus and sailed
to Rhegium.
The Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians, who had got into their hands many
more than the Phocaeans from among the crews of the forty vessels
that were destroyed, landed their captives upon the coast after the
fight, and stoned them all to death. Afterwards, when sheep, or oxen,
or even men of the district of Agylla passed by the spot where the
murdered Phocaeans lay, their bodies became distorted, or they were
seized with palsy, or they lost the use of some of their limbs. On
this the people of Agylla sent to Delphi to ask the oracle how they
might expiate their sin. The answer of the Pythoness required them
to institute the custom, which they still observe, of honouring the
dead Phocaeans with magnificent funeral rites, and solemn games, both
gymnic and equestrian. Such, then, was the fate that befell the Phocaean
prisoners. The other Phocaeans, who had fled to Rhegium, became after
a while the founders of the city called Vela, in the district of Oenotria.
This city they colonised, upon the showing of a man of Posidonia,
who suggested that the oracle had not meant to bid them set up a town
in Cyrnus the island, but set up the worship of Cyrnus the hero.
Thus fared it with the men of the city of Phocaea in Ionia. They of
Teos did and suffered almost the same; for they too, when Harpagus
had raised his mound to the height of their defences, took ship, one
and all, and sailing across the sea to Thrace, founded there the city
of Abdera. The site was one which Timesius of Clazomenae had previously
tried to colonise, but without any lasting success, for he was expelled
by the Thracians. Still the Teians of Abdera worship him to this day
as a hero.
Of all the Ionians these two states alone, rather than submit to slavery,
forsook their fatherland. The others (I except Miletus) resisted Harpagus
no less bravely than those who fled their country, and performed many
feats of arms, each fighting in their own defence, but one after another
they suffered defeat; the cities were taken, and the inhabitants submitted,
remaining in their respective countries, and obeying the behests of
their new lords. Miletus, as I have already mentioned, had made terms
with Cyrus, and so continued at peace. Thus was continental Ionia
once more reduced to servitude; and when the Ionians of the islands
saw their brethren upon the mainland subjugated, they also, dreading
the like, gave themselves up to Cyrus.
It was while the Ionians were in this distress, but still, amid it
all, held their meetings, as of old, at the Panionium, that Bias of
Priene, who was present at the festival, recommended (as I am informed)
a project of the very highest wisdom, which would, had it been embraced,
have enabled the Ionians to become the happiest and most flourishing
of the Greeks. He exhorted them "to join in one body, set sail for
Sardinia, and there found a single Pan-Ionic city; so they would escape
from slavery and rise to great fortune, being masters of the largest
island in the world, exercising dominion even beyond its bounds; whereas
if they stayed in Ionia, he saw no prospect of their ever recovering
their lost freedom." Such was the counsel which Bias gave the Ionians
in their affliction. Before their misfortunes began, Thales, a man
of Miletus, of Phoenician descent, had recommended a different plan.
He counselled them to establish a single seat of government, and pointed
out Teos as the fittest place for it; "for that," he said, "was the
centre of Ionia. Their other cities might still continue to enjoy
their own laws, just as if they were independent states." This also
was good advice.
After conquering the Ionians, Harpagus proceeded to attack the Carians,
the Caunians, and the Lycians. The Ionians and Aeolians were forced
to serve in his army. Now, of the above nations the Carians are a
race who came into the mainland from the islands. In ancient times
they were subjects of king Minos, and went by the name of Leleges,
dwelling among the isles, and, so far as I have been able to push
my inquiries, never liable to give tribute to any man. They served
on board the ships of king Minos whenever he required; and thus, as
he was a great conqueror and prospered in his wars, the Carians were
in his day the most famous by far of all the nations of the earth.
They likewise were the inventors of three things, the use of which
was borrowed from them by the Greeks; they were the first to fasten
crests on helmets and to put devices on shields, and they also invented
handles for shields. In the earlier times shields were without handles,
and their wearers managed them by the aid of a leathern thong, by
which they were slung round the neck and left shoulder. Long after
the time of Minos, the Carians were driven from the islands by the
Ionians and Dorians, and so settled upon the mainland. The above is
the account which the Cretans give of the Carians: the Carians themselves
say very differently. They maintain that they are the aboriginal inhabitants
of the part of the mainland where they now dwell, and never had any
other name than that which they still bear; and in proof of this they
show an ancient temple of Carian Jove in the country of the Mylasians,
in which the Mysians and Lydians have the right of worshipping, as
brother races to the Carians: for Lydus and Mysus, they say, were
brothers of Car. These nations, therefore, have the aforesaid right;
but such as are of a different race, even though they have come to
use the Carian tongue, are excluded from this temple.
The Caunians, in my judgment, are aboriginals; but by their own account
they came from Crete. In their language, either they have approximated
to the Carians, or the Carians to them- on this point I cannot speak
with certainty. In their customs, however, they differ greatly from
the Carians, and not only so, but from all other men. They think it
a most honourable practice for friends or persons of the same age,
whether they be men, women, or children, to meet together in large
companies, for the purpose of drinking wine. Again, on one occasion
they determined that they would no longer make use of the foreign
temples which had been long established among them, but would worship
their own old ancestral gods alone. Then their whole youth took arms,
and striking the air with their spears, marched to the Calyndic frontier,
declaring that they were driving out the foreign gods.
The Lycians are in good truth anciently from Crete; which island,
in former days, was wholly peopled with barbarians. A quarrel arising
there between the two sons of Europa, Sarpedon and Minos, as to which
of them should be king, Minos, whose party prevailed, drove Sarpedon
and his followers into banishment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and
landed on the Milyan territory. Milyas was the ancient name of the
country now inhabited by the Lycians: the Milyae of the present day
were, in those times, called Solymi. So long as Sarpedon reigned,
his followers kept the name which they brought with them from Crete,
and were called Termilae, as the Lycians still are by those who live
in their neighbourhood. But after Lycus, the son of Pandion, banished
from Athens by his brother Aegeus had found a refuge with Sarpedon
in the country of these Termilae, they came, in course of time, to
be called from him Lycians. Their customs are partly Cretan, partly
Carian. They have, however, one singular custom in which they differ
from every other nation in the world. They take the mother's and not
the father's name. Ask a Lycian who he is, and he answers by giving
his own name, that of his mother, and so on in the female line. Moreover,
if a free woman marry a man who is a slave, their children are full
citizens; but if a free man marry a foreign woman, or live with a
concubine, even though he be the first person in the State, the children
forfeit all the rights of citizenship.
Of these nations, the Carians submitted to Harpagus without performing
any brilliant exploits. Nor did the Greeks who dwelt in Caria behave
with any greater gallantry. Among them were the Cnidians, colonists
from Lacedaemon, who occupy a district facing the sea, which is called
Triopium. This region adjoins upon the Bybassian Chersonese; and,
except a very small space, is surrounded by the sea, being bounded
on the north by the Ceramic Gulf, and on the south by the channel
towards the islands of Syme and Rhodes. While Harpagus was engaged
in the conquest of Ionia, the Cnidians, wishing to make their country
an island, attempted to cut through this narrow neck of land, which
was no more than five furlongs across from sea to sea. Their whole
territory lay inside the isthmus; for where Cnidia ends towards the
mainland, the isthmus begins which they were now seeking to cut through.
The work had been commenced, and many hands were employed upon it,
when it was observed that there seemed to be something unusual and
unnatural in the number of wounds that the workmen received, especially
about their eyes, from the splintering of the rock. The Cnidians,
therefore, sent to Delphi, to inquire what it was that hindered their
efforts; and received, according to their own account, the following
answer from the oracle:-
Fence not the isthmus off, nor dig it through-
Jove would have made an island, had he wished. So the Cnidians ceased
digging, and when Harpagus advanced with his army, they gave themselves
up to him without striking a blow.
Above Halicarnassus and further from the coast, were the Pedasians.
With this people, when any evil is about to befall either themselves
or their neighbours, the priestess of Minerva grows an ample beard.
Three times has this marvel happened. They alone, of all the dwellers
in Caria, resisted Harpagus for a while, and gave him much trouble,
maintaining themselves in a certain mountain called Lida, which they
had fortified; but in course of time they also were forced to submit.
When Harpagus, after these successes, led his forces into the Xanthian
plain, the Lycians of Xanthus went out to meet him in the field: though
but a small band against a numerous host, they engaged in battle,
and performed many glorious exploits. Overpowered at last, and forced
within their walls, they collected into the citadel their wives and
children, all their treasures, and their slaves; and having so done,
fired the building, and burnt it to the ground. After this, they bound
themselves together by dreadful oaths, and sallying forth against
the enemy, died sword in hand, not one escaping. Those Lycians who
now claim to be Xanthians, are foreign immigrants, except eighty families,
who happened to be absent from the country, and so survived the others.
Thus was Xanthus taken by Harpagus, and Caunus fell in like manner
into his hands; for the Caunians in the main followed the example
of the Lycians.
While the lower parts of Asia were in this way brought under by Harpagus,
Cyrus in person subjected the upper regions, conquering every nation,
and not suffering one to escape. Of these conquests I shall pass by
the greater portion, and give an account of those only which gave
him the most trouble, and are the worthiest of mention. When he had
brought all the rest of the continent under his sway, he made war
on the Assyrians.
Assyria possesses a vast number of great cities, whereof the most
renowned and strongest at this time was Babylon, whither, after the
fall of Nineveh, the seat of government had been removed. The following
is a description of the place:- The city stands on a broad plain,
and is an exact square, a hundred and twenty furlongs in length each
way, so that the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty furlongs.
While such is its size, in magnificence there is no other city that
approaches to it. It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad
and deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a wall fifty royal
cubits in width, and two hundred in height. (The royal cubit is longer
by three fingers' breadth than the common cubit.)
And here I may not omit to tell the use to which the mould dug out
of the great moat was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall was
wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil which they got from
the cutting was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were
completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building,
and began with bricking the borders of the moat, after which they
proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their
cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every
thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along the edges of the
wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another,
leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the
circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen
lintels and side-posts. The bitumen used in the work was brought to
Babylon from the Is, a small stream which flows into the Euphrates
at the point where the city of the same name stands, eight days' journey
from Babylon. Lumps of bitumen are found in great abundance in this
river.
The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through
the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift
stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties itself into the Erythraean
sea. The city wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the
stream: thence, from the corners of the wall, there is carried along
each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks. The houses are mostly
three and four stories high; the streets all run in straight lines,
not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which
lead down to the water-side. At the river end of these cross streets
are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream, which are, like
the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open on the water.
The outer wall is the main defence of the city. There is, however,
a second inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very little
inferior to it in strength. The centre of each division of the town
was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings,
surrounded by a wall of great strength and size: in the other was
the sacred precinct of Jupiter Belus, a square enclosure two furlongs
each way, with gates of solid brass; which was also remaining in my
time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry,
a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower,
and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top
is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When
one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where
persons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the
topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands
a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its
side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the
chamber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who,
as the Chaldaeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for
himself by the deity out of all the women of the land.
They also declare- but I for my part do not credit it- that the god
comes down in person into this chamber, and sleeps upon the couch.
This is like the story told by the Egyptians of what takes place in
their city of Thebes, where a woman always passes the night in the
temple of the Theban Jupiter. In each case the woman is said to be
debarred all intercourse with men. It is also like the custom of Patara,
in Lycia, where the priestess who delivers the oracles, during the
time that she is so employed- for at Patara there is not always an
oracle- is shut up in the temple every night.
Below, in the same precinct, there is a second temple, in which is
a sitting figure of Jupiter, all of gold. Before the figure stands
a large golden table, and the throne whereon it sits, and the base
on which the throne is placed, are likewise of gold. The Chaldaeans
told me that all the gold together was eight hundred talents' weight.
Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, on which it
is only lawful to offer sucklings; the other a common altar, but of
great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. It is
also on the great altar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense,
which is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' weight, every
year, at the festival of the God. In the time of Cyrus there was likewise
in this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high, entirely of
solid gold. I myself did not see this figure, but I relate what the
Chaldaeans report concerning it. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, plotted
to carry the statue off, but had not the hardihood to lay his hands
upon it. Xerxes, however, the son of Darius, killed the priest who
forbade him to move the statue, and took it away. Besides the ornaments
which I have mentioned, there are a large number of private offerings
in this holy precinct.
Many sovereigns have ruled over this city of Babylon, and lent their
aid to the building of its walls and the adornment of its temples,
of whom I shall make mention in my Assyrian history. Among them two
were women. Of these, the earlier, called Semiramis, held the throne
five generations before the later princess. She raised certain embankments
well worthy of inspection, in the plain near Babylon, to control the
river, which, till then, used to overflow, and flood the whole country
round about.
The later of the two queens, whose name was Nitocris, a wiser princess
than her predecessor, not only left behind her, as memorials of her
occupancy of the throne, the works which I shall presently describe,
but also, observing the great power and restless enterprise of the
Medes, who had taken so large a number of cities, and among them Nineveh,
and expecting to be attacked in her turn, made all possible exertions
to increase the defences of her empire. And first, whereas the river
Euphrates, which traverses the city, ran formerly with a straight
course to Babylon, she, by certain excavations which she made at some
distance up the stream, rendered it so winding that it comes three
several times in sight of the same village, a village in Assyria,
which is called Ardericea; and to this day, they who would go from
our sea to Babylon, on descending to the river touch three times,
and on three different days, at this very place. She also made an
embankment along each side of the Euphrates, wonderful both for breadth
and height, and dug a basin for a lake a great way above Babylon,
close alongside of the stream, which was sunk everywhere to the point
where they came to water, and was of such breadth that the whole circuit
measured four hundred and twenty furlongs. The soil dug out of this
basin was made use of in the embankments along the waterside. When
the excavation was finished, she had stones brought, and bordered
with them the entire margin of the reservoir. These two things were
done, the river made to wind, and the lake excavated, that the stream
might be slacker by reason of the number of curves, and the voyage
be rendered circuitous, and that at the end of the voyage it might
be necessary to skirt the lake and so make a long round. All these
works were on that side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads
into Media were the straightest, and the aim of the queen in making
them was to prevent the Medes from holding intercourse with the Babylonians,
and so to keep them in ignorance of her affairs.
While the soil from the excavation was being thus used for the defence
of the city, Nitocris engaged also in another undertaking, a mere
by-work compared with those we have already mentioned. The city, as
I said, was divided by the river into two distinct portions. Under
the former kings, if a man wanted to pass from one of these divisions
to the other, he had to cross in a boat; which must, it seems to me,
have been very troublesome. Accordingly, while she was digging the
lake, Nitocris be. thought herself of turning it to a use which should
at once remove this inconvenience, and enable her to leave another
monument of her reign over Babylon. She gave orders for the hewing
of immense blocks of stone, and when they were ready and the basin
was excavated, she turned the entire stream of the Euphrates into
the cutting, and thus for a time, while the basin was filling, the
natural channel of the river was left dry. Forthwith she set to work,
and in the first place lined the banks of the stream within the city
with quays of burnt brick, and also bricked the landing-places opposite
the river-gates, adopting throughout the same fashion of brickwork
which had been used in the town wall; after which, with the materials
which had been prepared, she built, as near the middle of the town
as possible, a stone bridge, the blocks whereof were bound together
with iron and lead. In the daytime square wooden platforms were laid
along from pier to pier, on which the inhabitants crossed the stream;
but at night they were withdrawn, to prevent people passing from side
to side in the dark to commit robberies. When the river had filled
the cutting, and the bridge was finished, the Euphrates was turned
back again into its ancient bed; and thus the basin, transformed suddenly
into a lake, was seen to answer the purpose for which it was made,
and the inhabitants, by help of the basin, obtained the advantage
of a bridge.
It was this same princess by whom a remarkable deception was planned.
She had her tomb constructed in the upper part of one of the principal
gateways of the city, high above the heads of the passers by, with
this inscription cut upon it:- "If there be one among my successors
on the throne of Babylon who is in want of treasure, let him open
my tomb, and take as much as he chooses- not, however, unless he be
truly in want, for it will not be for his good." This tomb continued
untouched until Darius came to the kingdom. To him it seemed a monstrous
thing that he should be unable to use one of the gates of the town,
and that a sum of money should be lying idle, and moreover inviting
his grasp, and he not seize upon it. Now he could not use the gate,
because, as he drove through, the dead body would have been over his
head. Accordingly he opened the tomb; but instead of money, found
only the dead body, and a writing which said- "Hadst thou not been
insatiate of pelf, and careless how thou gottest it, thou wouldst
not have broken open the sepulchres of the dead."
The expedition of Cyrus was undertaken against the son of this princess,
who bore the same name as his father Labynetus, and was king of the
Assyrians. The Great King, when he goes to the wars, is always supplied
with provisions carefully prepared at home, and with cattle of his
own. Water too from the river Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken
with him for his drink, as that is the only water which the kings
of Persia taste. Wherever he travels, he is attended by a number of
four-wheeled cars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water, ready
boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver, is moved with him
from place to place.
Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes, a stream
which, rising in the Matienian mountains, runs through the country
of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. The Tigris,
after receiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis, and discharges
its waters into the Erythraean sea. When Cyrus reached this stream,
which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses
accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into
the water, and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him,
swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged
at the insolence of the river, threatened so to break its strength
that in future even women should cross it easily without wetting their
knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and,
dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred
and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it
in all directions, and setting his army to dig, some on one side of
the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid
of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the
whole summer season.
Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes, by dispersing
it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with the first
approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Babylon. The
Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming. A battle
was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians
were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon they withdrew within
their defences. Here they shut themselves up, and made light of his
siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation
against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after
nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their
turn would come at last.
Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity, as time went on and he
made no progress against the place. In this distress either some one
made the suggestion to him, or he bethought himself of a plan, which
he proceeded to put in execution. He placed a portion of his army
at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at
the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march
into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became
shallow enough: he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion
of his host, and made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin for
the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly: he turned
the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on
which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the
stream became fordable. Hereupon the Persians who had been left for
the purpose at Babylon by the, river-side, entered the stream, which
had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus
got into the town. Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus
was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have
allowed the Persians to enter the city, but would have destroyed them
utterly; for they would have made fast all the street-gates which
gave upon the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides
of the stream, would so have caught the enemy, as it were, in a trap.
But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took
the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of
the central parts (as the residents at Babylon declare) long after
the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had
chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing
and revelling until they learnt the capture but too certainly. Such,
then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.
Among many proofs which I shall bring forward of the power and resources
of the Babylonians, the following is of special account. The whole
country under the dominion of the Persians, besides paying a fixed
tribute, is parcelled out into divisions, which have to supply food
to the Great King and his army during different portions of the year.
Now out of the twelve months which go to a year, the district of Babylon
furnishes food during four, the other of Asia during eight; by the
which it appears that Assyria, in respect of resources, is one-third
of the whole of Asia. Of all the Persian governments, or satrapies
as they are called by the natives, this is by far the best. When Tritantaechmes,
son of Artabazus, held it of the king, it brought him in an artaba
of silver every day. The artaba is a Persian measure, and holds three
choenixes more than the medimnus of the Athenians. He also had, belonging
to his own private stud, besides war horses, eight hundred stallions
and sixteen thousand mares, twenty to each stallion. Besides which
he kept so great a number of Indian hounds, that four large villages
of the plain were exempted from all other charges on condition of
finding them in food.
But little rain falls in Assyria, enough, however, to make the corn
begin to sprout, after which the plant is nourished and the ears formed
by means of irrigation from the river. For the river does not, as
in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread
over them by the hand, or by the help of engines. The whole of Babylonia
is, like Egypt, intersected with canals. The largest of them all,
which runs towards the winter sun, and is impassable except in boats,
is carried from the Euphrates into another stream, called the Tigris,
the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood. Of all the
countries that we know there is none which is so fruitful in grain.
It makes no pretension indeed of growing the fig, the olive, the vine,
or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful as to
yield commonly two-hundred-fold, and when the production is the greatest,
even three-hundred-fold. The blade of the wheat-plant and barley-plant
is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and the sesame,
I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own knowledge;
for I am not ignorant that what I have already written concerning
the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have
never visited the country. The only oil they use is made from the
sesame-plant. Palm-trees grow in great numbers over the whole of the
flat country, mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this fruit
supplies them with bread, wine, and honey. They are cultivated like
the fig-tree in all respects, among others in this. The natives tie
the fruit of the male-palms, as they are called by the Greeks, to
the branches of the date-bearing palm, to let the gall-fly enter the
dates and ripen them, and to prevent the fruit from falling off. The
male-palms, like the wild fig-trees, have usually the gall-fly in
their fruit.
But that which surprises me most in the land, after the city itself,
I will now proceed to mention. The boats which come down the river
to Babylon are circular, and made of skins. The frames, which are
of willow, are cut in the country of the Armenians above Assyria,
and on these, which serve for hulls, a covering of skins is stretched
outside, and thus the boats are made, without either stem or stern,
quite round like a shield. They are then entirely filled with straw,
and their cargo is put on board, after which they are suffered to
float down the stream. Their chief freight is wine, stored in casks
made of the wood of the palm-tree. They are managed by two men who
stand upright in them, each plying an oar, one pulling and the other
pushing. The boats are of various sizes, some larger, some smaller;
the biggest reach as high as five thousand talents' burthen. Each
vessel has a live ass on board; those of larger size have more than
one. When they reach Babylon, the cargo is landed and offered for
sale; after which the men break up their boats, sell the straw and
the frames, and loading their asses with the skins, set off on their
way back to Armenia. The current is too strong to allow a boat to
return upstream, for which reason they make their boats of skins rather
than wood. On their return to Armenia they build fresh boats for the
next voyage.
The dress of the Babylonians is a linen tunic reaching to the feet,
and above it another tunic made in wool, besides which they have a
short white cloak thrown round them, and shoes of a peculiar fashion,
not unlike those worn by the Boeotians. They have long hair, wear
turbans on their heads, and anoint their whole body with perfumes.
Every one carries a seal, and a walking-stick, carved at the top into
the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something similar;
for it is not their habit to use a stick without an ornament.
Of their customs, whereof I shall now proceed to give an account,
the following (which I understand belongs to them in common with the
Illyrian tribe of the Eneti) is the wisest in my judgment. Once a
year in each village the maidens of age to marry were collected all
together into one place; while the men stood round them in a circle.
Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and offered them for
sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was sold for no small
sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came next to her in
beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest of the Babylonians
who wished to wed bid against each other for the loveliest maidens,
while the humbler wife-seekers, who were indifferent about beauty,
took the more homely damsels with marriage-portions. For the custom
was that when the herald had gone through the whole number of the
beautiful damsels, he should then call up the ugliest- a cripple,
if there chanced to be one- and offer her to the men, asking who would
agree to take her with the smallest marriage-portion. And the man
who offered to take the smallest sum had her assigned to him. The
marriage-portions were furnished by the money paid for the beautiful
damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned out the uglier. No
one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to the man of his
choice, nor might any one carry away the damsel whom he had purchased
without finding bail really and truly to make her his wife; if, however,
it turned out that they did not agree, the money might be paid back.
All who liked might come even from distant villages and bid for the
women. This was the best of all their customs, but it has now fallen
into disuse. They have lately hit upon a very different plan to save
their maidens from violence, and prevent their being torn from them
and carried to distant cities, which is to bring up their daughters
to be courtesans. This is now done by all the poorer of the common
people, who since the conquest have been maltreated by their lords,
and have had ruin brought upon their families.
The following custom seems to me the wisest of their institutions
next to the one lately praised. They have no physicians, but when
a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by
come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or
have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice,
recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case,
or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick
man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.
They bury their dead in honey, and have funeral lamentations like
the Egyptians. When a Babylonian has consorted with his wife, he sits
down before a censer of burning incense, and the woman sits opposite
to him. At dawn of day they wash; for till they are washed they will
not touch any of their common vessels. This practice is observed also
by the Arabians.
The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in
the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct
of Venus, and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier
sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages
to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there
take their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the
holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads- and here
there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going; lines
of cord mark out paths in all directions the women, and the strangers
pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken her
seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws
a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy
ground. When he throws the coin he says these words- "The goddess
Mylitta prosper thee." (Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians.)
The silver coin may be of any size; it cannot be refused, for that
is forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is sacred. The woman
goes with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one.
When she has gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returns
home, and from that time forth no gift however great will prevail
with her. Such of the women as are tall and beautiful are soon released,
but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can fulfil
the law. Some have waited three or four years in the precinct. A custom
very much like this is found also in certain parts of the island of
Cyprus.
Such are the customs of the Babylonians generally. There are likewise
three tribes among them who eat nothing but fish. These are caught
and dried in the sun, after which they are brayed in a mortar, and
strained through a linen sieve. Some prefer to make cakes of this
material, while others bake it into a kind of bread.
When Cyrus had achieved the conquest of the Babylonians, he conceived
the desire of bringing the Massagetae under his dominion. Now the
Massagetae are said to be a great and warlike nation, dwelling eastward,
toward the rising of the sun, beyond the river Araxes, and opposite
the Issedonians. By many they are regarded as a Scythian race.
As for the Araxes, it is, according to some accounts, larger, according
to others smaller than the Ister (Danube). It has islands in it, many
of which are said to be equal in size to Lesbos. The men who inhabit
them feed during the summer on roots of all kinds, which they dig
out of the ground, while they store up the fruits, which they gather
from the trees at the fitting season, to serve them as food in the
winter-time. Besides the trees whose fruit they gather for this purpose,
they have also a tree which bears the strangest produce. When they
are met together in companies they throw some of it upon the fire
round which they are sitting, and presently, by the mere smell of
the fumes which it gives out in burning, they grow drunk, as the Greeks
do with wine. More of the fruit is then thrown on the fire, and, their
drunkenness increasing, they often jump up and begin to dance and
sing. Such is the account which I have heard of this people.
The river Araxes, like the Gyndes, which Cyrus dispersed into three
hundred and sixty channels, has its source in the country of the Matienians.
It has forty mouths, whereof all, except one, end in bogs and swamps.
These bogs and swamps are said to be inhabited by a race of men who
feed on raw fish, and clothe themselves with the skins of seals. The
other mouth of the river flows with a clear course into the Caspian
Sea.
The Caspian is a sea by itself, having no connection with any other.
The sea frequented by the Greeks, that beyond the Pillars of Hercules,
which is called the Atlantic, and also the Erythraean, are all one
and the same sea. But the Caspian is a distinct sea, lying by itself,
in length fifteen days' voyage with a row-boat, in breadth, at the
broadest part, eight days' voyage. Along its western shore runs the
chain of the Caucasus, the most extensive and loftiest of all mountain-ranges.
Many and various are the tribes by which it is inhabited, most of
whom live entirely on the wild fruits of the forest. In these forests
certain trees are said to grow, from the leaves of which, pounded
and mixed with water, the inhabitants make a dye, wherewith they paint
upon their clothes the figures of animals; and the figures so impressed
never wash out, but last as though they had been inwoven in the cloth
from the first, and wear as long as the garment.
On the west then, as I have said, the Caspian Sea is bounded by the
range of Caucasus. On the cast it is followed by a vast plain, stretching
out interminably before the eye, the greater portion of which is possessed
by those Massagetae, against whom Cyrus was now so anxious to make
an expedition. Many strong motives weighed with him and urged him
on- his birth especially, which seemed something more than human,
and his good fortune in all his former wars, wherein he had always
found that against what country soever he turned his arms, it was
impossible for that people to escape.
At this time the Massagetae were ruled by a queen, named Tomyris,
who at the death of her husband, the late king, had mounted the throne.
To her Cyrus sent ambassadors, with instructions to court her on his
part, pretending that he wished to take her to wife. Tomyris, however,
aware that it was her kingdom, and not herself, that he courted, forbade
the men to approach. Cyrus, therefore, finding that he did not advance
his designs by this deceit, marched towards the Araxes, and openly
displaying his hostile intentions; set to work to construct a bridge
on which his army might cross the river, and began building towers
upon the boats which were to be used in the passage.
While the Persian leader was occupied in these labours, Tomyris sent
a herald to him, who said, "King of the Medes, cease to press this
enterprise, for thou canst not know if what thou art doing will be
of real advantage to thee. Be content to rule in peace thy own kingdom,
and bear to see us reign over the countries that are ours to govern.
As, however, I know thou wilt not choose to hearken to this counsel,
since there is nothing thou less desirest than peace and quietness,
come now, if thou art so mightily desirous of meeting the Massagetae
in arms, leave thy useless toil of bridge-making; let us retire three
days' march from the river bank, and do thou come across with thy
soldiers; or, if thou likest better to give us battle on thy side
the stream, retire thyself an equal distance." Cyrus, on this offer,
called together the chiefs of the Persians, and laid the matter before
them, requesting them to advise him what he should do. All the votes
were in favour of his letting Tomyris cross the stream, and giving
battle on Persian ground.
But Croesus the Lydian, who was present at the meeting of the chiefs,
disapproved of this advice; he therefore rose, and thus delivered
his sentiments in opposition to it: "Oh! my king! I promised thee
long since, that, as Jove had given me into thy hands, I would, to
the best of my power, avert impending danger from thy house. Alas!
my own sufferings, by their very bitterness, have taught me to be
keen-sighted of dangers. If thou deemest thyself an immortal, and
thine army an army of immortals, my counsel will doubtless be thrown
away upon thee. But if thou feelest thyself to be a man, and a ruler
of men, lay this first to heart, that there is a wheel on which the
affairs of men revolve, and that its movement forbids the same man
to be always fortunate. Now concerning the matter in hand, my judgment
runs counter to the judgment of thy other counsellors. For if thou
agreest to give the enemy entrance into thy country, consider what
risk is run! Lose the battle, and therewith thy whole kingdom is lost.
For assuredly, the Massagetae, if they win the fight, will not return
to their homes, but will push forward against the states of thy empire.
Or if thou gainest the battle, why, then thou gainest far less than
if thou wert across the stream, where thou mightest follow up thy
victory. For against thy loss, if they defeat thee on thine own ground,
must be set theirs in like case. Rout their army on the other side
of the river, and thou mayest push at once into the heart of their
country. Moreover, were it not disgrace intolerable for Cyrus the
son of Cambyses to retire before and yield ground to a woman? My counsel,
therefore, is that we cross the stream, and pushing forward as far
as they shall fall back, then seek to get the better of them by stratagem.
I am told they are unacquainted with the good things on which the
Persians live, and have never tasted the great delights of life. Let
us then prepare a feast for them in our camp; let sheep be slaughtered
without stint, and the winecups be filled full of noble liquor, and
let all manner of dishes be prepared: then leaving behind us our worst
troops, let us fall back towards the river. Unless I very much mistake,
when they see the good fare set out, they will forget all else and
fall to. Then it will remain for us to do our parts manfully."
Cyrus, when the two plans were thus placed in contrast before him,
changed his mind, and preferring the advice which Croesus had given,
returned for answer to Tomyris that she should retire, and that he
would cross the stream. She therefore retired, as she had engaged;
and Cyrus, giving Croesus into the care of his son Cambyses (whom
he had appointed to succeed him on the throne), with strict charge
to pay him all respect and treat him well, if the expedition failed
of success; and sending them both back to Persia, crossed the river
with his army.
The first night after the passage, as he slept in the enemy's country,
a vision appeared to him. He seemed to see in his sleep the eldest
of the sons of Hystaspes, with wings upon his shoulders, shadowing
with the one wing Asia, and Europe with the other. Now Hystaspes,
the son of Arsames, was of the race of the Achaemenidae, and his eldest
son, Darius, was at that time scarce twenty years old; wherefore,
not being of age to go to the wars, he had remained behind in Persia.
When Cyrus woke from his sleep, and turned the vision over in his
mind, it seemed to him no light matter. He therefore sent for Hystaspes,
and taking him aside said, "Hystaspes, thy son is discovered to be
plotting against me and my crown. I will tell thee how I know it so
certainly. The gods watch over my safety, and warn me beforehand of
every danger. Now last night, as I lay in my bed, I saw in a vision
the eldest of thy sons with wings upon his shoulders, shadowing with
the one wing Asia, and Europe with the other. From this it is certain,
beyond all possible doubt, that he is engaged in some plot against
me. Return thou then at once to Persia, and be sure, when I come back
from conquering the Massagetae, to have thy son ready to produce before
me, that I may examine him."
Thus Cyrus spoke, in the belief that he was plotted against by Darius;
but he missed the true meaning of the dream, which was sent by God
to forewarn him, that he was to die then and there, and that his kingdom
was to fall at last to Darius.
Hystaspes made answer to Cyrus in these words:- "Heaven forbid, sire,
that there should be a Persian living who would plot against thee!
If such an one there be, may a speedy death overtake him! Thou foundest
the Persians a race of slaves, thou hast made them free men: thou
foundest them subject to others, thou hast made them lords of all.
If a vision has announced that my son is practising against thee,
lo, I resign him into thy hands to deal with as thou wilt." Hystaspes,
when he had thus answered, recrossed the Araxes and hastened back
to Persia, to keep a watch on his son Darius.
Meanwhile Cyrus, having advanced a day's march from the river, did
as Croesus had advised him, and, leaving the worthless portion of
his army in the camp, drew off with his good troops towards the river.
Soon afterwards, a detachment of the Massagetae, one-third of their
entire army, led by Spargapises, son of the queen Tomyris, coming
up, fell upon the body which had been left behind by Cyrus, and on
their resistance put them to the sword. Then, seeing the banquet prepared,
they sat down and began to feast. When they had eaten and drunk their
fill, and were now sunk in sleep, the Persians under Cyrus arrived,
slaughtered a great multitude, and made even a larger number prisoners.
Among these last was Spargapises himself.
When Tomyris heard what had befallen her son and her army, she sent
a herald to Cyrus, who thus addressed the conqueror:- "Thou bloodthirsty
Cyrus, pride not thyself on this poor success: it was the grape-juice-
which, when ye drink it, makes you so mad, and as ye swallow it down
brings up to your lips such bold and wicked words- it was this poison
wherewith thou didst ensnare my child, and so overcamest him, not
in fair open fight. Now hearken what I advise, and be sure I advise
thee for thy good. Restore my son to me and get thee from the land
unharmed, triumphant over a third part of the host of the Massagetae.
Refuse, and I swear by the sun, the sovereign lord of the Massagetae,
bloodthirsty as thou art, I will give thee thy fill of blood."
To the words of this message Cyrus paid no manner of regard. As for
Spargapises, the son of the queen, when the wine went off, 'and he
saw the extent of his calamity, he made request to Cyrus to release
him from his bonds; then, when his prayer was granted, and the fetters
were taken from his limbs, as soon as his hands were free, he destroyed
himself.
Tomyris, when she found that Cyrus paid no heed to her advice, collected
all the forces of her kingdom, and gave him battle. Of all the combats
in which the barbarians have engaged among themselves, I reckon this
to have been the fiercest. The following, as I understand, was the
manner of it:- First, the two armies stood apart and shot their arrows
at each other; then, when their quivers were empty, they closed and
fought hand-to-hand with lances and daggers; and thus they continued
fighting for a length of time, neither choosing to give ground. At
length the Massagetae prevailed. The greater part of the army of the
Persians was destroyed and Cyrus himself fell, after reigning nine
and twenty years. Search was made among the slain by order of the
queen for the body of Cyrus, and when it was found she took a skin,
and, filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus
in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corse, "I live and have
conquered thee in fight, and yet by thee am I ruined, for thou tookest
my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give thee thy
fill of blood." Of the many different accounts which are given of
the death of Cyrus, this which I have followed appears to me most
worthy of credit.
In their dress and mode of living the Massagetae resemble the Scythians.
They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange
to them: they use bows and lances, but their favourite weapon is the
battle-axe. Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For their
spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for their battle-axes, they make
use of brass; for head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too with
the caparison of their horses, they give them breastplates of brass,
but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. They
use neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they
have brass and gold in abundance.
The following are some of their customs;- Each man has but one wife,
yet all the wives are held in common; for this is a custom of the
Massagetae and not of the Scythians, as the Greeks wrongly say. Human
life does not come to its natural close with this people; but when
a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk collect together and offer
him up in sacrifice; offering at the same time some cattle also. After
the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on it; and those who thus
end their days are reckoned the happiest. If a man dies of disease
they do not eat him, but bury him in the ground, bewailing his ill-fortune
that he did not come to be sacrificed. They sow no grain, but live
on their herds, and on fish, of which there is great plenty in the
Araxes. Milk is what they chiefly drink. The only god they worship
is the sun, and to him they offer the horse in sacrifice; under the
notion of giving to the swiftest of the gods the swiftest of all mortal
creatures.
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BOOK II
Euterpe
On the death of Cyrus, Cambyses his son by Cassandane daughter of
Pharnaspes took the kingdom. Cassandane had died in the lifetime of
Cyrus, who had made a great mourning for her at her death, and had
commanded all the subjects of his empire to observe the like. Cambyses,
the son of this lady and of Cyrus, regarding the Ionian and Aeolian
Greeks as vassals of his father, took them with him in his expedition
against Egypt among the other nations which owned his sway.
Now the Egyptians, before the reign of their king Psammetichus, believed
themselves to be the most ancient of mankind. Since Psammetichus,
however, made an attempt to discover who were actually the primitive
race, they have been of opinion that while they surpass all other
nations, the Phrygians surpass them in antiquity. This king, finding
it impossible to make out by dint of inquiry what men were the most
ancient, contrived the following method of discovery:- He took two
children of the common sort, and gave them over to a herdsman to bring
up at his folds, strictly charging him to let no one utter a word
in their presence, but to keep them in a sequestered cottage, and
from time to time introduce goats to their apartment, see that they
got their fill of milk, and in all other respects look after them.
His object herein was to know, after the indistinct babblings of infancy
were over, what word they would first articulate. It happened as he
had anticipated. The herdsman obeyed his orders for two years, and
at the end of that time, on his one day opening the door of their
room and going in, the children both ran up to him with outstretched
arms, and distinctly said "Becos." When this first happened the herdsman
took no notice; but afterwards when he observed, on coming often to
see after them, that the word was constantly in their mouths, he informed
his lord, and by his command brought the children into his presence.
Psammetichus then himself heard them say the word, upon which he proceeded
to make inquiry what people there was who called anything "becos,"
and hereupon he learnt that "becos" was the Phrygian name for bread.
In consideration of this circumstance the Egyptians yielded their
claims, and admitted the greater antiquity of the Phrygians.
That these were the real facts I learnt at Memphis from the priests
of Vulcan. The Greeks, among other foolish tales, relate that Psammetichus
had the children brought up by women whose tongues he had previously
cut out; but the priests said their bringing up was such as I have
stated above. I got much other information also from conversation
with these priests while I was at Memphis, and I even went to Heliopolis
and to Thebes, expressly to try whether the priests of those places
would agree in their accounts with the priests at Memphis. The Heliopolitans
have the reputation of being the best skilled in history of all the
Egyptians. What they told me concerning their religion it is not my
intention to repeat, except the names of their deities, which I believe
all men know equally. If I relate anything else concerning these matters,
it will only be when compelled to do so by the course of my narrative.
Now with regard to mere human matters, the accounts which they gave,
and in which all agreed, were the following. The Egyptians, they said,
were the first to discover the solar year, and to portion out its
course into twelve parts. They obtained this knowledge from the stars.
(To my mind they contrive their year much more cleverly than the Greeks,
for these last every other year intercalate a whole month, but the
Egyptians, dividing the year into twelve months of thirty days each,
add every year a space of five days besides, whereby the circuit of
the seasons is made to return with uniformity.) The Egyptians, they
went on to affirm, first brought into use the names of the twelve
gods, which the Greeks adopted from them; and first erected altars,
images, and temples to the gods; and also first engraved upon stone
the figures of animals. In most of these cases they proved to me that
what they said was true. And they told me that the first man who ruled
over Egypt was Min, and that in his time all Egypt, except the Thebaic
canton, was a marsh, none of the land below Lake Moeris then showing
itself above the surface of the water. This is a distance of seven
days' sail from the sea up the river.
What they said of their country seemed to me very reasonable. For
any one who sees Egypt, without having heard a word about it before,
must perceive, if he has only common powers of observation, that the
Egypt to which the Greeks go in their ships is an acquired country,
the gift of the river. The same is true of the land above the lake,
to the distance of three days' voyage, concerning which the Egyptians
say nothing, but which exactly the same kind of country.
The following is the general character of the region. In the first
place, on approaching it by sea, when you are still a day's sail from
the land, if you let down a sounding-line you will bring up mud, and
find yourself in eleven fathoms' water, which shows that the soil
washed down by the stream extends to that distance.
The length of the country along shore, according to the bounds that
we assign to Egypt, namely from the Plinthinetic gulf to Lake Serbonis,
which extends along the base of Mount Casius, is sixty schoenes. The
nations whose territories are scanty measure them by the fathom; those
whose bounds are less confined, by the furlong; those who have an
ample territory, by the parasang; but if men have a country which
is very vast, they measure it by the schoene. Now the length of the
parasang is thirty furlongs, but the schoene, which is an Egyptian
measure, is sixty furlongs. Thus the coastline of Egypt would extend
a length of three thousand six hundred furlongs.
From the coast inland as far as Heliopolis the breadth of Egypt is
considerable, the country is flat, without springs, and full of swamps.
The length of the route from the sea up to Heliopolis is almost exactly
the same as that of the road which runs from the altar of the twelve
gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Jove at Pisa. If a person
made a calculation he would find but a very little difference between
the two routes, not more than about fifteen furlongs; for the road
from Athens to Pisa falls short of fifteen hundred furlongs by exactly
fifteen, whereas the distance of Heliopolis from the sea is just the
round number.
As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis up the country, Egypt becomes narrow,
the Arabian range of hills, which has a direction from north to south,
shutting it in upon the one side, and the Libyan range upon the other.
The former ridge runs on without a break, and stretches away to the
sea called the Erythraean; it contains the quarries whence the stone
was cut for the pyramids of Memphis: and this is the point where it
ceases its first direction, and bends away in the manner above indicated.
In its greatest length from east to west it is, as I have been informed,
a distance of two months' journey towards the extreme east its skirts
produce frankincense. Such are the chief features of this range. On
the Libyan side, the other ridge whereon the pyramids stand is rocky
and covered with sand; its direction is the same as that of the Arabian
ridge in the first part of its course. Above Heliopolis, then, there
is no great breadth of territory for such a country as Egypt, but
during four days' sail Egypt is narrow; the valley between the two
ranges is a level plain, and seemed to me to be, at the narrowest
point, not more than two hundred furlongs across from the Arabian
to the Libyan hills. Above this point Egypt again widens.
From Heliopolis to Thebes is nine days' sail up the river; the distance
is eighty-one schoenes, or 4860 furlongs. If we now put together the
several measurements of the country we shall find that the distance
along shore is, as I stated above, 3600 furlongs, and the distance
from the sea inland to Thebes 6120 furlongs. Further, it is a distance
of eighteen hundred furlongs from Thebes to the place called Elephantine.
The greater portion of the country above described seemed to me to
be, as the priests declared, a tract gained by the inhabitants. For
the whole region above Memphis, lying between the two ranges of hills
that have been spoken of, appeared evidently to have formed at one
time a gulf of the sea. It resembles (to compare small things with
great) the parts about Ilium and Teuthrania, Ephesus, and the plain
of the Maeander. In all these regions the land has been formed by
rivers, whereof the greatest is not to compare for size with any one
of the five mouths of the Nile. I could mention other rivers also,
far inferior to the Nile in magnitude, that have effected very great
changes. Among these not the least is the Achelous, which, after passing
through Acarnania, empties itself into the sea opposite the islands
called Echinades, and has already joined one-half of them to the continent.
In Arabia, not far from Egypt, there is a long and narrow gulf running
inland from the sea called the Erythraean, of which I will here set
down the dimensions. Starting from its innermost recess, and using
a row-boat, you take forty days to reach the open main, while you
may cross the gulf at its widest part in the space of half a day.
In this sea there is an ebb and flow of the tide every day. My opinion
is that Egypt was formerly very much such a gulf as this- one gulf
penetrated from the sea that washes Egypt on the north, and extended
itself towards Ethiopia; another entered from the southern ocean,
and stretched towards Syria; the two gulfs ran into the land so as
almost to meet each other, and left between them only a very narrow
tract of country. Now if the Nile should choose to divert his waters
from their present bed into this Arabian gulf, what is there to hinder
it from being filled up by the stream within, at the utmost, twenty
thousand years? For my part, I think it would be filled in half the
time. How then should not a gulf, even of much greater size, have
been filled up in the ages that passed before I was born, by a river
that is at once so large and so given to working changes?
Thus I give credit to those from whom I received this account of Egypt,
and am myself, moreover, strongly of the same opinion, since I remarked
that the country projects into the sea further than the neighbouring
shores, and I observed that there were shells upon the hills, and
that salt exuded from the soil to such an extent as even to injure
the pyramids; and I noticed also that there is but a single hill in
all Egypt where sand is found, namely, the hill above Memphis; and
further, I found the country to bear no resemblance either to its
borderland Arabia, or to Libya- nay, nor even to Syria, which forms
the seaboard of Arabia; but whereas the soil of Libya is, we know,
sandy and of a reddish hue, and that of Arabia and Syria inclines
to stone and clay, Egypt has a soil that is black and crumbly, as
being alluvial and formed of the deposits brought down by the river
from Ethiopia.
One fact which I learnt of the priests is to me a strong evidence
of the origin of the country. They said that when Moeris was king,
the Nile overflowed all Egypt below Memphis, as soon as it rose so
little as eight cubits. Now Moeris had not been dead 900 years at
the time when I heard this of the priests; yet at the present day,
unless the river rise sixteen, or, at the very least, fifteen cubits,
it does not overflow the lands. It seems to me, therefore, that if
the land goes on rising and growing at this rate, the Egyptians who
dwell below Lake Moeris, in the Delta (as it is called) and elsewhere,
will one day, by the stoppage of the inundations, suffer permanently
the fate which they told me they expected would some time or other
befall the Greeks. On hearing that the whole land of Greece is watered
by rain from heaven, and not, like their own, inundated by rivers,
they observed- "Some day the Greeks will be disappointed of their
grand hope, and then they will be wretchedly hungry"; which was as
much as to say, "If God shall some day see fit not to grant the Greeks
rain, but shall afflict them with a long drought, the Greeks will
be swept away by a famine, since they have nothing to rely on but
rain from Jove, and have no other resource for water."
And certes, in thus speaking of the Greeks the Egyptians say nothing
but what is true. But now let me tell the Egyptians how the case stands
with themselves. If, as I said before, the country below Memphis,
which is the land that is always rising, continues to increase in
height at the rate at which it has risen in times gone by, how will
it be possible for the inhabitants of that region to avoid hunger,
when they will certainly have no rain, and the river will not be able
to overflow their cornlands? At present, it must be confessed, they
obtain the fruits of the field with less trouble than any other people
in the world, the rest of the Egyptians included, since they have
no need to break up the ground with the plough, nor to use the hoe,
nor to do any of the work which the rest of mankind find necessary
if they are to get a crop; but the husbandman waits till the river
has of its own accord spread itself over the fields and withdrawn
again to its bed, and then sows his plot of ground, and after sowing
turns his swine into it- the swine tread in the corn- after which
he has only to await the harvest. The swine serve him also to thrash
the grain, which is then carried to the garner.
If then we choose to adopt the views of the Ionians concerning Egypt,
we must come to the conclusion that the Egyptians had formerly no
country at all. For the Ionians say that nothing is really Egypt but
the Delta, which extends along shore from the Watch-tower of Perseus,
as it is called, to the Pelusiac Salt-Pans, a distance of forty schoenes,
and stretches inland as far as the city of Cercasorus, where the Nile
divides into the two streams which reach the sea at Pelusium and Canobus
respectively. The rest of what is accounted Egypt belongs, they say,
either to Arabia or Libya. But the Delta, as the Egyptians affirm,
and as I myself am persuaded, is formed of the deposits of the river,
and has only recently, if I may use the expression, come to light.
If, then, they had formerly no territory at all, how came they to
be so extravagant as to fancy themselves the most ancient race in
the world? Surely there was no need of their making the experiment
with the children to see what language they would first speak. But
in truth I do not believe that the Egyptians came into being at the
same time with the Delta, as the Ionians call it; I think they have
always existed ever since the human race began; as the land went on
increasing, part of the population came down into the new country,
part remained in their old settlements. In ancient times the Thebais
bore the name of Egypt, a district of which the entire circumference
is but 6120 furlongs.
If, then, my judgment on these matters be right, the Ionians are mistaken
in what they say of Egypt. If, on the contrary, it is they who are
right, then I undertake to show that neither the Ionians nor any of
the other Greeks know how to count. For they all say that the earth
is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya, whereas they
ought to add a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, since they do not
include it either in Asia or Libya. For is it not their theory that
the Nile separates Asia from Libya? As the Nile, therefore, splits
in two at the apex of the Delta, the Delta itself must be a separate
country, not contained in either Asia or Libya.
Here I take my leave of the opinions of the Ionians, and proceed to
deliver my own sentiments on these subjects. I consider Egypt to be
the whole country inhabited by the Egyptians, just as Cilicia is the
tract occupied by the Cilicians, and Assyria that possessed by the
Assyrians. And I regard the only proper boundary-line between Libya
and Asia to be that which is marked out by the Egyptian frontier.
For if we take the boundary-line commonly received by the Greeks,
we must regard Egypt as divided, along its whole length from Elephantine
and the Cataracts to Cercasorus, into two parts, each belonging to
a different portion of the world, one to Asia, the other to Libya;
since the Nile divides Egypt in two from the Cataracts to the sea,
running as far as the city of Cercasorus in a single stream, but at
that point separating into three branches, whereof the one which bends
eastward is called the Pelusiac mouth, and that which slants to the
west, the Canobic. Meanwhile the straight course of the stream, which
comes down from the upper country and meets the apex of the Delta,
continues on, dividing the Delta down the middle, and empties itself
into the sea by a mouth, which is as celebrated, and carries as large
a body of water, as most of the others, the mouth called the Sebennytic.
Besides these there are two other mouths which run out of the Sebennytic
called respectively the Saitic and the Mendesian. The Bolbitine mouth,
and the Bucolic, are not natural branches, but channels made by excavation.
My judgment as to the extent of Egypt is confirmed by an oracle delivered
at the shrine of Ammon, of which I had no knowledge at all until after
I had formed my opinion. It happened that the people of the cities
Marea and Apis, who live in the part of Egypt that borders on Libya,
took a dislike to the religious usages of the country concerning sacrificial
animals, and wished no longer to be restricted from eating the flesh
of cows. So, as they believed themselves to be Libyans and not Egyptians,
they sent to the shrine to say that, having nothing in common with
the Egyptians, neither inhabiting the Delta nor using the Egyptian
tongue, they claimed to be allowed to eat whatever they pleased. Their
request, however, was refused by the god, who declared in reply that
Egypt was the entire tract of country which the Nile overspreads and
irrigates, and the Egyptians were the people who lived below Elephantine,
and drank the waters of that river.
So said the oracle. Now the Nile, when it overflows, floods not only
the Delta, but also the tracts of country on both sides the stream
which are thought to belong to Libya and Arabia, in some places reaching
to the extent of two days' journey from its banks, in some even exceeding
that distance, but in others falling short of it.
Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information
either from the priests or from others. I was particularly anxious
to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer
solstice, begins to rise, and continues to increase for a hundred
days- and why, as soon as that number is past, it forthwith retires
and contracts its stream, continuing low during the whole of the winter
until the summer solstice comes round again. On none of these points
could I obtain any explanation from the inhabitants, though I made
every inquiry, wishing to know what was commonly reported- they could
neither tell me what special virtue the Nile has which makes it so
opposite in its nature to all other streams, nor why, unlike every
other river, it gives forth no breezes from its surface.
Some of the Greeks, however, wishing to get a reputation for cleverness,
have offered explanations of the phenomena of the river, for which
they have accounted in three different ways. Two of these I do not
think it worth while to speak of, further than simply to mention what
they are. One pretends that the Etesian winds cause the rise of the
river by preventing the Nile-water from running off into the sea.
But in the first place it has often happened, when the Etesian winds
did not blow, that the Nile has risen according to its usual wont;
and further, if the Etesian winds produced the effect, the other rivers
which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to present
the same phenomena as the Nile, and the more so as they are all smaller
streams, and have a weaker current. But these rivers, of which there
are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the Nile in
this respect.
The second opinion is even more unscientific than the one just mentioned,
and also, if I may so say, more marvellous. It is that the Nile acts
so strangely, because it flows from the ocean, and that the ocean
flows all round the earth.
The third explanation, which is very much more plausible than either
of the others, is positively the furthest from the truth; for there
is really nothing in what it says, any more than in the other theories.
It is, that the inundation of the Nile is caused by the melting of
snows. Now, as the Nile flows out of Libya, through Ethiopia, into
Egypt, how is it possible that it can be formed of melted snow, running,
as it does, from the hottest regions of the world into cooler countries?
Many are the proofs whereby any one capable of reasoning on the subject
may be convinced that it is most unlikely this should be the case.
The first and strongest argument is furnished by the winds, which
always blow hot from these regions. The second is that rain and frost
are unknown there. Now whenever snow falls, it must of necessity rain
within five days;.so that, if there were snow, there must be rain
also in those parts. Thirdly, it is certain that the natives of the
country are black with the heat, that the kites and the swallows remain
there the whole year, and that the cranes, when they fly from the
rigours of a Scythian winter, flock thither to pass the cold season.
If then, in the country whence the Nile has its source, or in that
through which it flows, there fell ever so little snow, it is absolutely
impossible that any of these circumstances could take place.
As for the writer who attributes the phenomenon to the ocean, his
account is involved in such obscurity that it is impossible to disprove
it by argument. For my part I know of no river called Ocean, and I
think that Homer, or one of the earlier poets, invented the name,
and introduced it into his poetry.
Perhaps, after censuring all the opinions that have been put forward
on this obscure subject, one ought to propose some theory of one's
own. I will therefore proceed to explain what I think to be the reason
of the Nile's swelling in the summer time. During the winter, the
sun is driven out of his usual course by the storms, and removes to
the upper parts of Libya. This is the whole secret in the fewest possible
words; for it stands to reason that the country to which the Sun-god
approaches the nearest, and which he passes most directly over, will
be scantest of water, and that there the streams which feed the rivers
will shrink the most.
To explain, however, more at length, the case is this. The sun, in
his passage across the upper parts of Libya, affects them in the following
way. As the air in those regions is constantly clear, and the country
warm through the absence of cold winds, the sun in his passage across
them acts upon them exactly as he wont to act elsewhere in summer,
when his path is in the middle of heaven- that is, he attracts the
water. After attracting it, he again repels it into the upper regions,
where the winds lay hold of it, scatter it, and reduce it to a vapour,
whence it naturally enough comes to pass that the winds which blow
from this quarter- the south and south-west- are of all winds the
most rainy. And my own opinion is that the sun does not get rid of
all the water which he draws year by year from the Nile, but retains
some about him. When the winter begins to soften, the sun goes back
again to his old place in the middle of the heaven, and proceeds to
attract water equally from all countries. Till then the other rivers
run big, from the quantity of rain-water which they bring down from
countries where so much moisture falls that all the land is cut into
gullies; but in summer, when the showers fail, and the sun attracts
their water, they become low. The Nile, on the contrary, not deriving
any of its bulk from rains, and being in winter subject to the attraction
of the sun, naturally runs at that season, unlike all other streams,
with a less burthen of water than in the summer time. For in summer
it is exposed to attraction equally with all other rivers, but in
winter it suffers alone. The sun, therefore, I regard as the sole
cause of the phenomenon.
It is the sun also, in my opinion, which, by heating the space through
which it passes, makes the air in Egypt so dry. There is thus perpetual
summer in the upper parts of Libya. Were the position of the heavenly
regions reversed, so that the place where now the north wind and the
winter have their dwelling became the station of the south wind and
of the noon-day, while, on the other hand, the station of the south
wind became that of the north, the consequence would be that the sun,
driven from the mid-heaven by the winter and the northern gales, would
betake himself to the upper parts of Europe, as he now does to those
of Libya, and then I believe his passage across Europe would affect
the Ister exactly as the Nile is affected at the present day.
And with respect to the fact that no breeze blows from the Nile, I
am of opinion that no wind is likely to arise in very hot countries,
for breezes love to blow from some cold quarter.
Let us leave these things, however, to their natural course, to continue
as they are and have been from the beginning. With regard to the sources
of the Nile, I have found no one among all those with whom I have
conversed, whether Egyptians, Libyans, or Greeks, who professed to
have any knowledge, except a single person. He was the scribe who
kept the register of the sacred treasures of Minerva in the city of
Sais, and he did not seem to me to be in earnest when he said that
he knew them perfectly well. His story was as follows:- "Between Syene,
a city of the Thebais, and Elephantine, there are" (he said) "two
hills with sharp conical tops; the name of the one is Crophi, of the
other, Mophi. Midway between them are the fountains of the Nile, fountains
which it is impossible to fathom. Half the water runs northward into
Egypt, half to the south towards Ethiopia." The fountains were known
to be unfathomable, he declared, because Psammetichus, an Egyptian
king, had made trial of them. He had caused a rope to be made, many
thousand fathoms in length, and had sounded the fountain with it,
but could find no bottom. By this the scribe gave me to understand,
if there was any truth at all in what he said, that in this fountain
there are certain strong eddies, and a regurgitation, owing to the
force wherewith the water dashes against the mountains, and hence
a Sounding-line cannot be got to reach the bottom of the spring.
No other information on this head could I obtain from any quarter.
All that I succeeded in learning further of the more distant portions
of the Nile, by ascending myself as high as Elephantine and making
inquiries concerning the parts beyond, was the following:- As one
advances beyond Elephantine, the land rises. Hence it is necessary
in this part of the river to attach a rope to the boat on each side,
as men harness an ox, and so proceed on the journey. If the rope snaps,
the vessel is borne away down stream by the force of the current.
The navigation continues the same for four days, the river winding
greatly, like the Maeander, and the distance traversed amounting to
twelve schoenes. Here you come upon a smooth and level plain, where
the Nile flows in two branches, round an island called Tachompso.
The country above Elephantine is inhabited by the Ethiopians, who
possess one-half of this island, the Egyptians occupying the other.
Above the island there is a great lake, the shores of which are inhabited
by Ethiopian nomads; after passing it, you come again to the stream
of the Nile, which runs into the lake. Here you land, and travel for
forty days along the banks of the river, since it is impossible to
proceed further in a boat on account of the sharp peaks which jut
out from the water, and the sunken rocks which abound in that part
of the stream. When you have passed this portion of the river in the
space of forty days, you go on board another boat and proceed by water
for twelve days more, at the end of which time you reach a great city
called Meroe, which is said to be the capital of the other Ethiopians.
The only gods worshipped by the inhabitants are Jupiter and Bacchus,
to whom great honours are paid. There is an oracle of Jupiter in the
city, which directs the warlike expeditions of the Ethiopians; when
it commands they go to war, and in whatever direction it bids them
march, thither straightway they carry their arms.
On leaving this city, and again mounting the stream, in the same space
of time which it took you to reach the capital from Elephantine, you
come to the Deserters, who bear the name of Asmach. This word, translated
into our language, means "the men who stand on the left hand of the
king." These Deserters are Egyptians of the warrior caste, who, to
the number of two hundred and forty thousand, went over to the Ethiopians
in the reign of king Psammetichus. The cause of their desertion was
the following:- Three garrisons were maintained in Egypt at that time,
one in the city of Elephantine against the Ethiopians, another in
the Pelusiac Daphnae, against the Syrians and Arabians, and a third,
against the Libyans, in Marea. (The very same posts are to this day
occupied by the Persians, whose forces are in garrison both in Daphnae
and in Elephantine.) Now it happened, that on one occasion the garrisons
were not relieved during the space of three years; the soldiers, therefore,
at the end of that time, consulted together, and having determined
by common consent to revolt, marched away towards Ethiopia. Psammetichus,
informed of the movement, set out in pursuit, and coming up with them,
besought them with many words not to desert the gods of their country,
nor abandon their wives and children. "Nay, but," said one of the
deserters with an unseemly gesture, "wherever we go, we are sure enough
of finding wives and children." Arrived in Ethiopia, they placed themselves
at the disposal of the king. In return, he made them a present of
a tract of land which belonged to certain Ethiopians with whom he
was at feud, bidding them expel the inhabitants and take possession
of their territory. From the time that this settlement was formed,
their acquaintance with Egyptian manners has tended to civilise the
Ethiopians.
Thus the course of the Nile is known, not only throughout Egypt, but
to the extent of four months' journey either by land or water above
the Egyptian boundary; for on calculation it will be found that it
takes that length of time to travel from Elephantine to the country
of the Deserters. There the direction of the river is from west to
east. Beyond, no one has any certain knowledge of its course, since
the country is uninhabited by reason of the excessive heat.
I did hear, indeed, what I will now relate, from certain natives of
Cyrene. Once upon a time, they said, they were on a visit to the oracular
shrine of Ammon, when it chanced that in the course of conversation
with Etearchus, the Ammonian king, the talk fell upon the Nile, how
that its sources were unknown to all men. Etearchus upon this mentioned
that some Nasamonians had once come to his court, and when asked if
they could give any information concerning the uninhabited parts of
Libya, had told the following tale. (The Nasamonians are a Libyan
race who occupy the Syrtis, and a tract of no great size towards the
east.) They said there had grown up among them some wild young men,
the sons of certain chiefs, who, when they came to man's estate, indulged
in all manner of extravagancies, and among other things drew lots
for five of their number to go and explore the desert parts of Libya,
and try if they could not penetrate further than any had done previously.
The coast of Libya along the sea which washes it to the north, throughout
its entire length from Egypt to Cape Soloeis, which is its furthest
point, is inhabited by Libyans of many distinct tribes who possess
the whole tract except certain portions which belong to the Phoenicians
and the Greeks. Above the coast-line and the country inhabited by
the maritime tribes, Libya is full of wild beasts; while beyond the
wild beast region there is a tract which is wholly sand, very scant
of water, and utterly and entirely a desert. The young men therefore,
despatched on this errand by their comrades with a plentiful supply
of water and provisions, travelled at first through the inhabited
region, passing which they came to the wild beast tract, whence they
finally entered upon the desert, which they proceeded to cross in
a direction from east to west. After journeying for many days over
a wide extent of sand, they came at last to a plain where they observed
trees growing; approaching them, and seeing fruit on them, they proceeded
to gather it. While they were thus engaged, there came upon them some
dwarfish men, under the middle height, who seized them and carried
them off. The Nasamonians could not understand a word of their language,
nor had they any acquaintance with the language of the Nasamonians.
They were led across extensive marshes, and finally came to a town,
where all the men were of the height of their conductors, and black-complexioned.
A great river flowed by the town, running from west to east, and containing
crocodiles.
Here let me dismiss Etearchus the Ammonian, and his story, only adding
that (according to the Cyrenaeans) he declared that the Nasamonians
got safe back to their country, and that the men whose city they had
reached were a nation of sorcerers. With respect to the river which
ran by their town, Etearchus conjectured it to be the Nile; and reason
favours that view. For the Nile certainly flows out of Libya, dividing
it down the middle, and as I conceive, judging the unknown from the
known, rises at the same distance from its mouth as the Ister. This
latter river has its source in the country of the Celts near the city
Pyrene, and runs through the middle of Europe, dividing it into two
portions. The Celts live beyond the pillars of Hercules, and border
on the Cynesians, who dwell at the extreme west of Europe. Thus the
Ister flows through the whole of Europe before it finally empties
itself into the Euxine at Istria, one of the colonies of the Milesians.
Now as this river flows through regions that are inhabited, its course
is perfectly well known; but of the sources of the Nile no one can
give any account, since Libya, the country through which it passes,
is desert and without inhabitants. As far as it was possible to get
information by inquiry, I have given a description of the stream.
It enters Egypt from the parts beyond. Egypt lies almost exactly opposite
the mountainous portion of Cilicia, whence a lightly-equipped traveller
may reach Sinope on the Euxine in five days by the direct route. Sinope
lies opposite the place where the Ister falls into the sea. My opinion
therefore is that the Nile, as it traverses the whole of Libya, is
of equal length with the Ister. And here I take my leave of this subject.
Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend my remarks to a great length,
because there is no country that possesses so many wonders, nor any
that has such a number of works which defy description. Not only is
the climate different from that of the rest of the world, and the
rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people also, in most of their
manners and customs, exactly reverse the common practice of mankind.
The women attend the markets and trade, while the men sit at home
at the loom; and here, while the rest of the world works the woof
up the warp, the Egyptians work it down; the women likewise carry
burthens upon their shoulders, while the men carry them upon their
heads. They eat their food out of doors in the streets, but retire
for private purposes to their houses, giving as a reason that what
is unseemly, but necessary, ought to be done in secret, but what has
nothing unseemly about it, should be done openly. A woman cannot serve
the priestly office, either for god or goddess, but men are priests
to both; sons need not support their parents unless they choose, but
daughters must, whether they choose or no.
In other countries the priests have long hair, in Egypt their heads
are shaven; elsewhere it is customary, in mourning, for near relations
to cut their hair close: the Egyptians, who wear no hair at any other
time, when they lose a relative, let their beards and the hair of
their heads grow long. All other men pass their lives separate from
animals, the Egyptians have animals always living with them; others
make barley and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to do so in Egypt,
where the grain they live on is spelt, which some call zea. Dough
they knead with their feet; but they mix mud, and even take up dirt,
with their hands. They are the only people in the world- they at least,
and such as have learnt the practice from them- who use circumcision.
Their men wear two garments apiece, their women but one. They put
on the rings and fasten the ropes to sails inside; others put them
outside. When they write or calculate, instead of going, like the
Greeks, from left to right, they move their hand from right to left;
and they insist, notwithstanding, that it is they who go to the right,
and the Greeks who go to the left. They have two quite different kinds
of writing, one of which is called sacred, the other common.
They are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men, and
use the following ceremonies:- They drink out of brazen cups, which
they scour every day: there is no exception to this practice. They
wear linen garments, which they are specially careful to have always
fresh washed. They practise circumcision for the sake of cleanliness,
considering it better to be cleanly than comely. The priests shave
their whole body every other day, that no lice or other impure thing
may adhere to them when they are engaged in the service of the gods.
Their dress is entirely of linen, and their shoes of the papyrus plant:
it is not lawful for them to wear either dress or shoes of any other
material. They bathe twice every day in cold water, and twice each
night; besides which they observe, so to speak, thousands of ceremonies.
They enjoy, however, not a few advantages. They consume none of their
own property, and are at no expense for anything; but every day bread
is baked for them of the sacred corn, and a plentiful supply of beef
and of goose's flesh is assigned to each, and also a portion of wine
made from the grape. Fish they are not allowed to eat; and beans-
which none of the Egyptians ever sow, or eat, if they come up of their
own accord, either raw or boiled- the priests will not even endure
to look on, since they consider it an unclean kind of pulse. Instead
of a single priest, each god has the attendance of a college, at the
head of which is a chief priest; when one of these dies, his son is
appointed in his room.
Male kine are reckoned to belong to Epaphus, and are therefore tested
in the following manner:- One of the priests appointed for the purpose
searches to see if there is a single black hair on the whole body,
since in that case the beast is unclean. He examines him all over,
standing on his legs, and again laid upon his back; after which he
takes the tongue out of his mouth, to see if it be clean in respect
of the prescribed marks (what they are I will mention elsewhere);
he also inspects the hairs of the tail, to observe if they grow naturally.
If the animal is pronounced clean in all these various points, the
priest marks him by twisting a piece of papyrus round his horns, and
attaching thereto some sealing-clay, which he then stamps with his
own signet-ring. After this the beast is led away; and it is forbidden,
under the penalty of death, to sacrifice an animal which has not been
marked in this way.
The following is their manner of sacrifice:- They lead the victim,
marked with their signet, to the altar where they are about to offer
it, and setting the wood alight, pour a libation of wine upon the
altar in front of the victim, and at the same time invoke the god.
Then they slay the animal, and cutting off his head, proceed to flay
the body. Next they take the head, and heaping imprecations on it,
if there is a market-place and a body of Greek traders in the city,
they carry it there and sell it instantly; if, however, there are
no Greeks among them, they throw the head into the river. The imprecation
is to this effect:- They pray that if any evil is impending either
over those who sacrifice, or over universal Egypt, it may be made
to fall upon that head. These practices, the imprecations upon the
heads, and the libations of wine, prevail all over Egypt, and extend
to victims of all sorts; and hence the Egyptians will never eat the
head of any animal.
The disembowelling and burning are, however, different in different
sacrifices. I will mention the mode in use with respect to the goddess
whom they regard as the greatest, and honour with the chiefest festival.
When they have flayed their steer they pray, and when their prayer
is ended they take the paunch of the animal out entire, leaving the
intestines and the fat inside the body; they then cut off the legs,
the ends of the loins, the shoulders, and the neck; and having so
done, they fill the body of the steer with clean bread, honey, raisins,
figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatics. Thus filled, they
burn the body, pouring over it great quantities of oil. Before offering
the sacrifice they fast, and while the bodies of the victims are being
consumed they beat themselves. Afterwards, when they have concluded
this part of the ceremony, they have the other parts of the victim
served up to them for a repast.
The male kine, therefore, if clean, and the male calves, are used
for sacrifice by the Egyptians universally; but the females they are
not allowed to sacrifice, since they are sacred to Isis. The statue
of this goddess has the form of a woman but with horns like a cow,
resembling thus the Greek representations of Io; and the Egyptians,
one and all, venerate cows much more highly than any other animal.
This is the reason why no native of Egypt, whether man or woman, will
give a Greek a kiss, or use the knife of a Greek, or his spit, or
his cauldron, or taste the flesh of an ox, known to be pure, if it
has been cut with a Greek knife. When kine die, the following is the
manner of their sepulture:- The females are thrown into the river;
the males are buried in the suburbs of the towns, with one or both
of their horns appearing above the surface of the ground to mark the
place. When the bodies are decayed, a boat comes, at an appointed
time, from the island called Prosopitis,- which is a portion of the
Delta, nine schoenes in circumference,- and calls at the several cities
in turn to collect the bones of the oxen. Prosopitis is a district
containing several cities; the name of that from which the boats come
is Atarbechis. Venus has a temple there of much sanctity. Great numbers
of men go forth from this city and proceed to the other towns, where
they dig up the bones, which they take away with them and bury together
in one place. The same practice prevails with respect to the interment
of all other cattle- the law so determining; they do not slaughter
any of them.
Such Egyptians as possess a temple of the Theban Jove, or live in
the Thebaic canton, offer no sheep in sacrifice, but only goats; for
the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods, excepting Isis and
Osiris, the latter of whom they say is the Grecian Bacchus. Those,
on the contrary, who possess a temple dedicated to Mendes, or belong
to the Mendesian canton, abstain from offering goats, and sacrifice
sheep instead. The Thebans, and such as imitate them in their practice,
give the following account of the origin of the custom:- "Hercules,"
they say, "wished of all things to see Jove, but Jove did not choose
to be seen of him. At length, when Hercules persisted, Jove hit on
a device- to flay a ram, and, cutting off his head, hold the head
before him, and cover himself with the fleece. In this guise he showed
himself to Hercules." Therefore the Egyptians give their statues of
Jupiter the face of a ram: and from them the practice has passed to
the Ammonians, who are a joint colony of Egyptians and Ethiopians,
speaking a language between the two; hence also, in my opinion, the
latter people took their name of Ammonians, since the Egyptian name
for Jupiter is Amun. Such, then, is the reason why the Thebans do
not sacrifice rams, but consider them sacred animals. Upon one day
in the year, however, at the festival of Jupiter, they slay a single
ram, and stripping off the fleece, cover with it the statue of that
god, as he once covered himself, and then bring up to the statue of
Jove an image of Hercules. When this has been done, the whole assembly
beat their breasts in mourning for the ram, and afterwards bury him
in a holy sepulchre.
The account which I received of this Hercules makes him one of the
twelve gods. Of the other Hercules, with whom the Greeks are familiar,
I could hear nothing in any part of Egypt. That the Greeks, however
(those I mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that name), took the
name from the Egyptians, and not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is
I think clearly proved, among other arguments, by the fact that both
the parents of Hercules, Amphitryon as well as Alcmena, were of Egyptian
origin. Again, the Egyptians disclaim all knowledge of the names of
Neptune and the Dioscuri, and do not include them in the number of
their gods; but had they adopted the name of any god from the Greeks,
these would have been the likeliest to obtain notice, since the Egyptians,
as I am well convinced, practised navigation at that time, and the
Greeks also were some of them mariners, so that they would have been
more likely to know the names of these gods than that of Hercules.
But the Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient gods. Seventeen
thousand years before the reign of Amasis, the twelve gods were, they
affirm, produced from the eight: and of these twelve, Hercules is
one.
In the wish to get the best information that I could on these matters,
I made a voyage to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a temple of
Hercules at that place, very highly venerated. I visited the temple,
and found it richly adorned with a number of offerings, among which
were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, shining
with great brilliancy at night. In a conversation which I held with
the priests, I inquired how long their temple had been built, and
found by their answer that they, too, differed from the Greeks. They
said that the temple was built at the same time that the city was
founded, and that the foundation of the city took place two thousand
three hundred years ago. In Tyre I remarked another temple where the
same god was worshipped as the Thasian Hercules. So I went on to Thasos,
where I found a temple of Hercules which had been built by the Phoenicians
who colonised that island when they sailed in search of Europa. Even
this was five generations earlier than the time when Hercules, son
of Amphitryon, was born in Greece. These researches show plainly that
there is an ancient god Hercules; and my own opinion is that those
Greeks act most wisely who build and maintain two temples of Hercules,
in the one of which the Hercules worshipped is known by the name of
Olympian, and has sacrifice offered to him as an immortal, while in
the other the honours paid are such as are due to a hero.
The Greeks tell many tales without due investigation, and among them
the following silly fable respecting Hercules:- "Hercules," they say,
"went once to Egypt, and there the inhabitants took him, and putting
a chaplet on his head, led him out in solemn procession, intending
to offer him a sacrifice to Jupiter. For a while he submitted quietly;
but when they led him up to the altar and began the ceremonies, he
put forth his strength and slew them all." Now to me it seems that
such a story proves the Greeks to be utterly ignorant of the character
and customs of the people. The Egyptians do not think it allowable
even to sacrifice cattle, excepting sheep, and the male kine and calves,
provided they be pure, and also geese. How, then, can it be believed
that they would sacrifice men? And again, how would it have been possible
for Hercules alone, and, as they confess, a mere mortal, to destroy
so many thousands? In saying thus much concerning these matters, may
I incur no displeasure either of god or hero!
I mentioned above that some of the Egyptians abstain from sacrificing
goats, either male or female. The reason is the following:- These
Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, consider Pan to be one of the eight
gods who existed before the twelve, and Pan is represented in Egypt
by the painters and the sculptors, just as he is in Greece, with the
face and legs of a goat. They do not, however, believe this to be
his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike the other gods; but
they represent him thus for a reason which I prefer not to relate.
The Mendesians hold all goats in veneration, but the male more than
the female, giving the goatherds of the males especial honour. One
is venerated more highly than all the rest, and when he dies there
is a great mourning throughout all the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian,
the goat and Pan are both called Mendes.
The pig is regarded among them as an unclean animal, so much so that
if a man in passing accidentally touch a pig, he instantly hurries
to the river, and plunges in with all his clothes on. Hence, too,
the swineherds, notwithstanding that they are of pure Egyptian blood,
are forbidden to enter into any of the temples, which are open to
all other Egyptians; and further, no one will give his daughter in
marriage to a swineherd, or take a wife from among them, so that the
swineherds are forced to intermarry among themselves. They do not
offer swine in sacrifice to any of their gods, excepting Bacchus and
the Moon, whom they honour in this way at the same time, sacrificing
pigs to both of them at the same full moon, and afterwards eating
of the flesh. There is a reason alleged by them for their detestation
of swine at all other seasons, and their use of them at this festival,
with which I am well acquainted, but which I do not think it proper
to mention. The following is the mode in which they sacrifice the
swine to the Moon:- As soon as the victim is slain, the tip of the
tail, the spleen, and the caul are put together, and having been covered
with all the fat that has been found in the animal's belly, are straightway
burnt. The remainder of the flesh is eaten on the same day that the
sacrifice is offered, which is the day of the full moon: at any other
time they would not so much as taste it. The poorer sort, who cannot
afford live pigs, form pigs of dough, which they bake and offer in
sacrifice.
To Bacchus, on the eve of his feast, every Egyptian sacrifices a hog
before the door of his house, which is then given back to the swineherd
by whom it was furnished, and by him carried away. In other respects
the festival is celebrated almost exactly as Bacchic festivals are
in Greece, excepting that the Egyptians have no choral dances. They
also use instead of phalli another invention, consisting of images
a cubit high, pulled by strings, which the women carry round to the
villages. A piper goes in front, and the women follow, singing hymns
in honour of Bacchus. They give a religious reason for the peculiarities
of the image.
Melampus, the son of Amytheon, cannot (I think) have been ignorant
of this ceremony- nay, he must, I should conceive, have been well
acquainted with it. He it was who introduced into Greece the name
of Bacchus, the ceremonial of his worship, and the procession of the
phallus. He did not, however, so completely apprehend the whole doctrine
as to be able to communicate it entirely, but various sages since
his time have carried out his teaching to greater perfection. Still
it is certain that Melampus introduced the phallus, and that the Greeks
learnt from him the ceremonies which they now practise. I therefore
maintain that Melampus, who was a wise man, and had acquired the art
of divination, having become acquainted with the worship of Bacchus
through knowledge derived from Egypt, introduced it into Greece, with
a few slight changes, at the same time that he brought in various
other practices. For I can by no means allow that it is by mere coincidence
that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as the
Egyptian- they would then have been more Greek in their character,
and less recent in their origin. Much less can I admit that the Egyptians
borrowed these customs, or any other, from the Greeks. My belief is
that Melampus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus the Tyrian, and
the followers whom he brought from Phoenicia into the country which
is now called Boeotia.
Almost all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt. My inquiries
prove that they were all derived from a foreign source, and my opinion
is that Egypt furnished the greater number. For with the exception
of Neptune and the Dioscuri, whom I mentioned above, and Juno, Vesta,
Themis, the Graces, and the Nereids, the other gods have been known
from time immemorial in Egypt. This I assert on the authority of the
Egyptians themselves. The gods, with whose names they profess themselves
unacquainted, the Greeks received, I believe, from the Pelasgi, except
Neptune. Of him they got their knowledge from the Libyans, by whom
he has been always honoured, and who were anciently the only people
that had a god of the name. The Egyptians differ from the Greeks also
in paying no divine honours to heroes.
Besides these which have been here mentioned, there are many other
practices whereof I shall speak hereafter, which the Greeks have borrowed
from Egypt. The peculiarity, however, which they observe in their
statues of Mercury they did not derive from the Egyptians, but from
the Pelasgi; from them the Athenians first adopted it, and afterwards
it passed from the Athenians to the other Greeks. For just at the
time when the Athenians were entering into the Hellenic body, the
Pelasgi came to live with them in their country, whence it was that
the latter came first to be regarded as Greeks. Whoever has been initiated
into the mysteries of the Cabiri will understand what I mean. The
Samothracians received these mysteries from the Pelasgi, who, before
they went to live in Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and imparted
their religious ceremonies to the inhabitants. The Athenians, then,
who were the first of all the Greeks to make their statues of Mercury
in this way, learnt the practice from the Pelasgians; and by this
people a religious account of the matter is given, which is explained
in the Samothracian mysteries.
In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by information which I got at
Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the gods, but
had no distinct names or appellations for them, since they had never
heard of any. They called them gods (Theoi, disposers), because they
disposed and arranged all things in such a beautiful order. After
a long lapse of time the names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt,
and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus,
of whom they first heard at a much later date. Not long after the
arrival of the names they sent to consult the oracle at Dodona about
them. This is the most ancient oracle in Greece, and at that time
there was no other. To their question, "Whether they should adopt
the names that had been imported from the foreigners?" the oracle
replied by recommending their use. Thenceforth in their sacrifices
the Pelasgi made use of the names of the gods, and from them the names
passed afterwards to the Greeks.
Whence the gods severally sprang, whether or no they had all existed
from eternity, what forms they bore- these are questions of which
the Greeks knew nothing until the other day, so to speak. For Homer
and Hesiod were the first to compose Theogonies, and give the gods
their epithets, to allot them their several offices and occupations,
and describe their forms; and they lived but four hundred years before
my time, as I believe. As for the poets who are thought by some to
be earlier than these, they are, in my judgment, decidedly later writers.
In these matters I have the authority of the priestesses of Dodona
for the former portion of my statements; what I have said of Homer
and Hesiod is my own opinion.
The following tale is commonly told in Egypt concerning the oracle
of Dodona in Greece, and that of Ammon in Libya. My informants on
the point were the priests of Jupiter at Thebes. They said "that two
of the sacred women were once carried off from Thebes by the Phoenicians,
and that the story went that one of them was sold into Libya, and
the other into Greece, and these women were the first founders of
the oracles in the two countries." On my inquiring how they came to
know so exactly what became of the women, they answered, "that diligent
search had been made after them at the time, but that it had not been
found possible to discover where they were; afterwards, however, they
received the information which they had given me."
This was what I heard from the priests at Thebes; at Dodona, however,
the women who deliver the oracles relate the matter as follows:- "Two
black doves flew away from Egyptian Thebes, and while one directed
its flight to Libya, the other came to them. She alighted on an oak,
and sitting there began to speak with a human voice, and told them
that on the spot where she was, there should henceforth be an oracle
of Jove. They understood the announcement to be from heaven, so they
set to work at once and erected the shrine. The dove which flew to
Libya bade the Libyans to establish there the oracle of Ammon." This
likewise is an oracle of Jupiter. The persons from whom I received
these particulars were three priestesses of the Dodonaeans, the eldest
Promeneia, the next Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra- what they
said was confirmed by the other Dodonaeans who dwell around the temple.
My own opinion of these matters is as follows:- I think that, if it
be true that the Phoenicians carried off the holy women, and sold
them for slaves, the one into Libya and the other into Greece, or
Pelasgia (as it was then called), this last must have been sold to
the Thesprotians. Afterwards, while undergoing servitude in those
parts, she built under a real oak a temple to Jupiter, her thoughts
in her new abode reverting- as it was likely they would do, if she
had been an attendant in a temple of Jupiter at Thebes- to that particular
god. Then, having acquired a knowledge of the Greek tongue, she set
up an oracle. She also mentioned that her sister had been sold for
a slave into Libya by the same persons as herself.
The Dodonaeans called the women doves because they were foreigners,
and seemed to them to make a noise like birds. After a while the dove
spoke with a human voice, because the woman, whose foreign talk had
previously sounded to them like the chattering of a bird, acquired
the power of speaking what they could understand. For how can it be
conceived possible that a dove should really speak with the voice
of a man? Lastly, by calling the dove black the Dodonaeans indicated
that the woman was an Egyptian. And certainly the character of the
oracles at Thebes and Dodona is very similar. Besides this form of
divination, the Greeks learnt also divination by means of victims
from the Egyptians.
The Egyptians were also the first to introduce solemn assemblies,
processions, and litanies to the gods; of all which the Greeks were
taught the use by them. It seems to me a sufficient proof of this
that in Egypt these practices have been established from remote antiquity,
while in Greece they are only recently known.
The Egyptians do not hold a single solemn assembly, but several in
the course of the year. Of these the chief, which is better attended
than any other, is held at the city of Bubastis in honour of Diana.
The next in importance is that which takes place at Busiris, a city
situated in the very middle of the Delta; it is in honour of Isis,
who is called in the Greek tongue Demiter (Ceres). There is a third
great festival in Sais to Minerva, a fourth in Heliopolis to the Sun,
a fifth in Buto to Latona, and a sixth in Papremis to Mars.
The following are the proceedings on occasion of the assembly at Bubastis:-
Men and women come sailing all together, vast numbers in each boat,
many of the women with castanets, which they strike, while some of
the men pipe during the whole time of the voyage; the remainder of
the voyagers, male and female, sing the while, and make a clapping
with their hands. When they arrive opposite any of the towns upon
the banks of the stream, they approach the shore, and, while some
of the women continue to play and sing, others call aloud to the females
of the place and load them with abuse, while a certain number dance,
and some standing up uncover themselves. After proceeding in this
way all along the river-course, they reach Bubastis, where they celebrate
the feast with abundant sacrifices. More grape-wine is consumed at
this festival than in all the rest of the year besides. The number
of those who attend, counting only the men and women and omitting
the children, amounts, according to the native reports, to seven hundred
thousand.
The ceremonies at the feast of Isis in the city of Busiris have been
already spoken of. It is there that the whole multitude, both of men
and women, many thousands in number, beat themselves at the close
of the sacrifice, in honour of a god, whose name a religious scruple
forbids me to mention. The Carian dwellers in Egypt proceed on this
occasion to still greater lengths, even cutting their faces with their
knives, whereby they let it been seen that they are not Egyptians
but foreigners.
At Sais, when the assembly takes place for the sacrifices, there is
one night on which the inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights
in the open air round their houses. They use lamps in the shape of
flat saucers filled with a mixture of oil and salt, on the top of
which the wick floats. These burn the whole night, and give to the
festival the name of the Feast of Lamps. The Egyptians who are absent
from the festival observe the night of the sacrifice, no less than
the rest, by a general lighting of lamps; so that the illumination
is not confined to the city of Sais, but extends over the whole of
Egypt. And there is a religious reason assigned for the special honour
paid to this night, as well as for the illumination which accompanies
it.
At Heliopolis and Buto the assemblies are merely for the purpose of
sacrifice; but at Papremis, besides the sacrifices and other rites
which are performed there as elsewhere, the following custom is observed:-
When the sun is getting low, a few only of the priests continue occupied
about the image of the god, while the greater number, armed with wooden
clubs, take their station at the portal of the temple. Opposite to
them is drawn up a body of men, in number above a thousand, armed,
like the others, with clubs, consisting of persons engaged in the
performance of their vows. The image of the god, which is kept in
a small wooden shrine covered with plates of gold, is conveyed from
the temple into a second sacred building the day before the festival
begins. The few priests still in attendance upon the image place it,
together with the shrine containing it, on a four-wheeled car, and
begin to drag it along; the others stationed at the gateway of the
temple, oppose its admission. Then the votaries come forward to espouse
the quarrel of the god, and set upon the opponents, who are sure to
offer resistance. A sharp fight with clubs ensues, in which heads
are commonly broken on both sides. Many, I am convinced, die of the
wounds that they receive, though the Egyptians insist that no one
is ever killed.
The natives give the subjoined account of this festival. They say
that the mother of the god Mars once dwelt in the temple. Brought
up at a distance from his parent, when he grew to man's estate he
conceived a wish to visit her. Accordingly he came, but the attendants,
who had never seen him before, refused him entrance, and succeeded
in keeping him out. So he went to another city and collected a body
of men, with whose aid he handled the attendants very roughly, and
forced his way in to his mother. Hence they say arose the custom of
a fight with sticks in honour of Mars at this festival.
The Egyptians first made it a point of religion to have no converse
with women in the sacred places, and not to enter them without washing,
after such converse. Almost all other nations, except the Greeks and
the Egyptians, act differently, regarding man as in this matter under
no other law than the brutes. Many animals, they say, and various
kinds of birds, may be seen to couple in the temples and the sacred
precincts, which would certainly not happen if the gods were displeased
at it. Such are the arguments by which they defend their practice,
but I nevertheless can by no means approve of it. In these points
the Egyptians are specially careful, as they are indeed in everything
which concerns their sacred edifices.
Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, is not a region abounding in
wild animals. The animals that do exist in the country, whether domesticated
or otherwise, are all regarded as sacred. If I were to explain why
they are consecrated to the several gods, I should be led to speak
of religious matters, which I particularly shrink from mentioning;
the points whereon I have touched slightly hitherto have all been
introduced from sheer necessity. Their custom with respect to animals
is as follows:- For every kind there are appointed certain guardians,
some male, some female, whose business it is to look after them; and
this honour is made to descend from father to son. The inhabitants
of the various cities, when they have made a vow to any god, pay it
to his animals in the way which I will now explain. At the time of
making the vow they shave the head of the child, cutting off all the
hair, or else half, or sometimes a third part, which they then weigh
in a balance against a sum of silver; and whatever sum the hair weighs
is presented to the guardian of the animals, who thereupon cuts up
some fish, and gives it to them for food- such being the stuff whereon
they are fed. When a man has killed one of the sacred animals, if
he did it with malice prepense, he is punished with death; if unwittingly,
he has to pay such a fine as the priests choose to impose. When an
ibis, however, or a hawk is killed, whether it was done by accident
or on purpose, the man must needs die.
The number of domestic animals in Egypt is very great, and would be
still greater were it not for what befalls the cats. As the females,
when they have kittened, no longer seek the company of the males,
these last, to obtain once more their companionship, practise a curious
artifice. They seize the kittens, carry them off, and kill them, but
do not cat them afterwards. Upon this the females, being deprived
of their young, and longing to supply their place, seek the males
once more, since they are particularly fond of their offspring. On
every occasion of a fire in Egypt the strangest prodigy occurs with
the cats. The inhabitants allow the fire to rage as it pleases, while
they stand about at intervals and watch these animals, which, slipping
by the men or else leaping over them, rush headlong into the flames.
When this happens, the Egyptians are in deep affliction. If a cat
dies in a private house by a natural death, all the inmates of the
house shave their eyebrows; on the death of a dog they shave the head
and the whole of the body.
The cats on their decease are taken to the city of Bubastis, where
they are embalmed, after which they are buried in certain sacred repositories.
The dogs are interred in the cities to which they belong, also in
sacred burial-places. The same practice obtains with respect to the
ichneumons; the hawks and shrew-mice, on the contrary, are conveyed
to the city of Buto for burial, and the ibises to Hermopolis. The
bears, which are scarce in Egypt, and the wolves, which are not much
bigger than foxes, they bury wherever they happen to find them lying.
The following are the peculiarities of the crocodile:- During the
four winter months they eat nothing; they are four-footed, and live
indifferently on land or in the water. The female lays and hatches
her eggs ashore, passing the greater portion of the day on dry land,
but at night retiring to the river, the water of which is warmer than
the night-air and the dew. Of all known animals this is the one which
from the smallest size grows to be the greatest: for the egg of the
crocodile is but little bigger than that of the goose, and the young
crocodile is in proportion to the egg; yet when it is full grown,
the animal measures frequently seventeen cubits and even more. It
has the eyes of a pig, teeth large and tusk-like, of a size proportioned
to its frame; unlike any other animal, it is without a tongue; it
cannot move its under-jaw, and in this respect too it is singular,
being the only animal in the world which moves the upper-jaw but not
the under. It has strong claws and a scaly skin, impenetrable upon
the back. In the water it is blind, but on land it is very keen of
sight. As it lives chiefly in the river, it has the inside of its
mouth constantly covered with leeches; hence it happens that, while
all the other birds and beasts avoid it, with the trochilus it lives
at peace, since it owes much to that bird: for the crocodile, when
he leaves the water and comes out upon the land, is in the habit of
lying with his mouth wide open, facing the western breeze: at such
times the trochilus goes into his mouth and devours the leeches. This
benefits the crocodile, who is pleased, and takes care not to hurt
the trochilus.
The crocodile is esteemed sacred by some of the Egyptians, by others
he is treated as an enemy. Those who live near Thebes, and those who
dwell around Lake Moeris, regard them with especial veneration. In
each of these places they keep one crocodile in particular, who is
taught to be tame and tractable. They adorn his ears with ear-rings
of molten stone or gold, and put bracelets on his fore-paws, giving
him daily a set portion of bread, with a certain number of victims;
and, after having thus treated him with the greatest possible attention
while alive, they embalm him when he dies and bury him in a sacred
repository. The people of Elephantine on the other hand, are so far
from considering these animals as sacred that they even eat their
flesh. In the Egyptian language they are not called crocodiles, but
Champsae. The name of crocodiles was given them by the Ionians, who
remarked their resemblance to the lizards, which in Ionia live in
the walls and are called crocodiles.
The modes of catching the crocodile are many and various. I shall
only describe the one which seems to me most worthy of mention. They
bait a hook with a chine of pork and let the meat be carried out into
the middle of the stream, while the hunter upon the bank holds a living
pig, which he belabours. The crocodile hears its cries, and making
for the sound, encounters the pork, which he instantly swallows down.
The men on the shore haul, and when they have got him to land, the
first thing the hunter does is to plaster his eyes with mud. This
once accomplished, the animal is despatched with ease, otherwise he
gives great trouble.
The hippopotamus, in the canton of Papremis, is a sacred animal, but
not in any other part of Egypt. It may be thus described:- It is a
quadruped, cloven-footed, with hoofs like an ox, and a flat nose.
It has the mane and tail of a horse, huge tusks which are very conspicuous,
and a voice like a horse's neigh. In size it equals the biggest oxen,
and its skin is so tough that when dried it is made into javelins.
Otters also are found in the Nile, and are considered sacred. Only
two sorts of fish are venerated, that called the lepidotus and the
eel. These are regarded as sacred to the Nile, as likewise among birds
is the vulpanser, or fox-goose.
They have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself
have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity,
even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the
people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix
dies. Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as
follow:- The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general
make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle. They tell a story
of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be credible:
that he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird,
all plastered over with myrrh, to the temple of the Sun, and there
buries the body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a
ball of myrrh as big as he finds that he can carry; then he hollows
out the ball, and puts his parent inside, after which he covers over
the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly the
same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over
as I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun. Such is
the story they tell of the doings of this bird.
In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are some sacred serpents which
are perfectly harmless. They are of small size, and have two horns
growing out of the top of the head. These snakes, when they die, are
buried in the temple of Jupiter, the god to whom they are sacred.
I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly opposite
the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged serpents.
On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers
as it is impossible to describe: of the ribs there were a multitude
of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized. The place where
the bones lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep mountains,
which there open upon a spacious plain communicating with the great
plain of Egypt. The story goes that with the spring the winged snakes
come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this gorge by
the birds called ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy them
all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that it is
on account of the service thus rendered that the Egyptians hold the
ibis in so much reverence.
The ibis is a bird of a deep-black colour, with legs like a crane;
its beak is strongly hooked, and its size is about that of the land-rail.
This is a description of the black ibis which contends with the serpents.
The commoner sort, for there are two quite distinct species, has the
head and the whole throat bare of feathers; its general plumage is
white, but the head and neck are jet black, as also are the tips of
the wings and the extremity of the tail; in its beak and legs it resembles
the other species. The winged serpent is shaped like the water-snake.
Its wings are not feathered, but resemble very closely those of the
bat. And thus I conclude the subject of the sacred animals.
With respect to the Egyptians themselves, it is to be remarked that
those who live in the corn country, devoting themselves, as they do,
far more than any other people in the world, to the preservation of
the memory of past actions, are the best skilled in history of any
men that I have ever met. The following is the mode of life habitual
to them:- For three successive days in each month they purge the body
by means of emetics and clysters, which is done out of a regard for
their health, since they have a persuasion that every disease to which
men are liable is occasioned by the substances whereon they feed.
Apart from any such precautions, they are, I believe, next to the
Libyans, the healthiest people in the world- an effect of their climate,
in my opinion, which has no sudden changes. Diseases almost always
attack men when they are exposed to a change, and never more than
during changes of the weather. They live on bread made of spelt, which
they form into loaves called in their own tongue cyllestis. Their
drink is a wine which they obtain from barley, as they have no vines
in their country. Many kinds of fish they eat raw, either salted or
dried in the sun. Quails also, and ducks and small birds, they eat
uncooked, merely first salting them. All other birds and fishes, excepting
those which are set apart as sacred, are eaten either roasted or boiled.
In social meetings among the rich, when the banquet is ended, a servant
carries round to the several guests a coffin, in which there is a
wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted to resemble nature as
nearly as possible, about a cubit or two cubits in length. As he shows
it to each guest in turn, the servant says, "Gaze here, and drink
and be merry; for when you die, such will you be."
The Egyptians adhere to their own national customs, and adopt no foreign
usages. Many of these customs are worthy of note: among others their
song, the Linus, which is sung under various names not only in Egypt
but in Phoenicia, in Cyprus, and in other places; and which seems
to be exactly the same as that in use among the Greeks, and by them
called Linus. There were very many things in Egypt which filled me
with astonishment, and this was one of them. Whence could the Egyptians
have got the Linus? It appears to have been sung by them from the
very earliest times. For the Linus in Egyptian is called Maneros;
and they told me that Maneros was the only son of their first king,
and that on his untimely death he was honoured by the Egyptians with
these dirgelike strains, and in this way they got their first and
only melody.
There is another custom in which the Egyptians resemble a particular
Greek people, namely the Lacedaemonians. Their young men, when they
meet their elders in the streets, give way to them and step aside;
and if an elder come in where young men are present, these latter
rise from their seats. In a third point they differ entirely from
all the nations of Greece. Instead of speaking to each other when
they meet in the streets, they make an obeisance, sinking the hand
to the knee.
They wear a linen tunic fringed about the legs, and called calasiris;
over this they have a white woollen garment thrown on afterwards.
Nothing of woollen, however, is taken into their temples or buried
with them, as their religion forbids it. Here their practice resembles
the rites called Orphic and Bacchic, but which are in reality Egyptian
and Pythagorean; for no one initiated in these mysteries can be buried
in a woollen shroud, a religious reason being assigned for the observance.
The Egyptians likewise discovered to which of the gods each month
and day is sacred; and found out from the day of a man's birth what
he will meet with in the course of his life, and how he will end his
days, and what sort of man he will be- discoveries whereof the Greeks
engaged in poetry have made a use. The Egyptians have also discovered
more prognostics than all the rest of mankind besides. Whenever a
prodigy takes place, they watch and record the result; then, if anything
similar ever happens again, they expect the same consequences.
With respect to divination, they hold that it is a gift which no mortal
possesses, but only certain of the gods: thus they have an oracle
of Hercules, one of Apollo, of Minerva, of Diana, of Mars, and of
Jupiter. Besides these, there is the oracle of Latona at Buto, which
is held in much higher repute than any of the rest. The mode of delivering
the oracles is not uniform, but varies at the different shrines.
Medicine is practised among them on a plan of separation; each physician
treats a single disorder, and no more: thus the country swarms with
medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye,
others of the head, others again of the teeth, others of the intestines,
and some those which are not local.
The following is the way in which they conduct their mournings and
their funerals:- On the death in any house of a man of consequence,
forthwith the women of the family beplaster their heads, and sometimes
even their faces, with mud; and then, leaving the body indoors, sally
forth and wander through the city, with their dress fastened by a
band, and their bosoms bare, beating themselves as they walk. All
the female relations join them and do the same. The men too, similarly
begirt, beat their breasts separately. When these ceremonies are over,
the body is carried away to be embalmed.
There are a set of men in Egypt who practice the art of embalming,
and make it their proper business. These persons, when a body is brought
to them, show the bearers various models of corpses, made in wood,
and painted so as to resemble nature. The most perfect is said to
be after the manner of him whom I do not think it religious to name
in connection with such a matter; the second sort is inferior to the
first, and less costly; the third is the cheapest of all. All this
the embalmers explain, and then ask in which way it is wished that
the corpse should be prepared. The bearers tell them, and having concluded
their bargain, take their departure, while the embalmers, left to
themselves, proceed to their task. The mode of embalming, according
to the most perfect process, is the following:- They take first a
crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the brain through the
nostrils, thus getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared
of the rest by rinsing with drugs; next they make a cut along the
flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole contents
of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, washing it thoroughly with
palm wine, and again frequently with an infusion of pounded aromatics.
After this they fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with
cassia, and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and sew
up the opening. Then the body is placed in natrum for seventy days,
and covered entirely over. After the expiration of that space of time,
which must not be exceeded, the body is washed, and wrapped round,
from head to foot, with bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over
with gum, which is used generally by the Egyptians in the place of
glue, and in this state it is given back to the relations, who enclose
it in a wooden case which they have had made for the purpose, shaped
into the figure of a man. Then fastening the case, they place it in
a sepulchral chamber, upright against the wall. Such is the most costly
way of embalming the dead.
If persons wish to avoid expense, and choose the second process, the
following is the method pursued:- Syringes are filled with oil made
from the cedar-tree, which is then, without any incision or disembowelling,
injected into the abdomen. The passage by which it might be likely
to return is stopped, and the body laid in natrum the prescribed number
of days. At the end of the time the cedar-oil is allowed to make its
escape; and such is its power that it brings with it the whole stomach
and intestines in a liquid state. The natrum meanwhile has dissolved
the flesh, and so nothing is left of the dead body but the skin and
the bones. It is returned in this condition to the relatives, without
any further trouble being bestowed upon it.
The third method of embalming, which is practised in the case of the
poorer classes, is to clear out the intestines with a clyster, and
let the body lie in natrum the seventy days, after which it is at
once given to those who come to fetch it away.
The wives of men of rank are not given to be embalmed immediately
after death, nor indeed are any of the more beautiful and valued women.
It is not till they have been dead three or four days that they are
carried to the embalmers. This is done to prevent indignities from
being offered them. It is said that once a case of this kind occurred:
the man was detected by the information of his fellow-workman.
Whensoever any one, Egyptian or foreigner, has lost his life by falling
a prey to a crocodile, or by drowning in the river, the law compels
the inhabitants of the city near which the body is cast up to have
it embalmed, and to bury it in one of the sacred repositories with
all possible magnificence. No one may touch the corpse, not even any
of the friends or relatives, but only the priests of the Nile, who
prepare it for burial with their own hands- regarding it as something
more than the mere body of a man- and themselves lay it in the tomb.
The Egyptians are averse to adopt Greek customs, or, in a word, those
of any other nation. This feeling is almost universal among them.
At Chemmis, however, which is a large city in the Thebaic canton,
near Neapolis, there is a square enclosure sacred to Perseus, son
of Danae. Palm trees grow all round the place, which has a stone gateway
of an unusual size, surmounted by two colossal statues, also in stone.
Inside this precinct is a temple, and in the temple an image of Perseus.
The people of Chemmis say that Perseus often appears to them, sometimes
within the sacred enclosure, sometimes in the open country: one of
the sandals which he has worn is frequently found- two cubits in length,
as they affirm- and then all Egypt flourishes greatly. In the worship
of Perseus Greek ceremonies are used; gymnastic games are celebrated
in his honour, comprising every kind of contest, with prizes of cattle,
cloaks, and skins. I made inquiries of the Chemmites why it was that
Perseus appeared to them and not elsewhere in Egypt, and how they
came to celebrate gymnastic contests unlike the rest of the Egyptians:
to which they answered, "that Perseus belonged to their city by descent.
Danans and Lynceus were Chemmites before they set sail for Greece,
and from them Perseus was descended," they said, tracing the genealogy;
"and he, when he came to Egypt for the purpose" (which the Greeks
also assign) "of bringing away from Libya the Gorgon's head, paid
them a visit, and acknowledged them for his kinsmen- he had heard
the name of their city from his mother before he left Greece- he bade
them institute a gymnastic contest in his honour, and that was the
reason why they observed the practice."
The customs hitherto described are those of the Egyptians who live
above the marsh-country. The inhabitants of the marshes have the same
customs as the rest, as well in those matters which have been mentioned
above as in respect of marriage, each Egyptian taking to himself,
like the Greeks, a single wife; but for greater cheapness of living
the marsh-men practise certain peculiar customs, such as these following.
They gather the blossoms of a certain water-lily, which grows in great
abundance all over the flat country at the time when the Nile rises
and floods the regions along its banks- the Egyptians call it lotus-
they gather, I say, the blossoms of this plant and dry them in the
sun, after which they extract from the centre of each blossom a substance
like the head of a poppy, which they crush and make into bread. The
root of the lotus is likewise eatable, and has a pleasant sweet taste:
it is round, and about the size of an apple. There is also another
species of the lily in Egypt, which grows, like the lotus, in the
river, and resembles the rose. The fruit springs up side by side with
the blossom, on a separate stalk, and has almost exactly the look
of the comb made by wasps. It contains a number of seeds, about the
size of an olive-stone, which are good to eat: and these are eaten
both green and dried. The byblus (papyrus), which grows year after
year in the marshes, they pull up, and, cutting the plant in two,
reserve the upper portion for other purposes, but take the lower,
which is about a cubit long, and either eat it or else sell it. Such
as wish to enjoy the byblus in full perfection bake it first in a
closed vessel, heated to a glow. Some of these folk, however, live
entirely on fish, which are gutted as soon as caught, and then hung
up in the sun: when dry, they are used as food.
Gregarious fish are not found in any numbers in the rivers; they frequent
the lagunes, whence, at the season of breeding, they proceed in shoals
towards the sea. The males lead the way, and drop their milt as they
go, while the females, following close behind, eagerly swallow it
down. From this they conceive, and when, after passing some time in
the sea, they begin to be in spawn, the whole shoal sets off on its
return to its ancient haunts. Now, however, it is no longer the males,
but the females, who take the lead: they swim in front in a body,
and do exactly as the males did before, dropping, little by little,
their grains of spawn as they go, while the males in the rear devour
the grains, each one of which is a fish. A portion of the spawn escapes
and is not swallowed by the males, and hence come the fishes which
grow afterwards to maturity. Whan any of this sort of fish are taken
on their passage to the sea, they are found to have the left side
of the head scarred and bruised; while if taken on their return, the
marks appear on the right. The reason is that as they swim down the
Nile seaward, they keep close to the bank of the river upon their
left, and returning again up stream they still cling to the same side,
hugging it and brushing against it constantly, to be sure that they
miss not their road through the great force of the current. When the
Nile begins to rise, the hollows in the land and the marshy spots
near the river are flooded before any other places by the percolation
of the water through the riverbanks; and these, almost as soon as
they become pools, are found to be full of numbers of little fishes.
I think that I understand how it is this comes to pass. On the subsidence
of the Nile the year before, though the fish retired with the retreating
waters, they had first deposited their spawn in the mud upon the banks;
and so, when at the usual season the water returns, small fry are
rapidly engendered out of the spawn of the preceding year. So much
concerning the fish.
The Egyptians who live in the marshes use for the anointing of their
bodies an oil made from the fruit of the sillicyprium, which is known
among them by the name of "kiki." To obtain this they plant the sillicyprium
(which grows wild in Greece) along the banks of the rivers and by
the sides of the lakes, where it produces fruit in great abundance,
but with a very disagreeable smell. This fruit is gathered, and then
bruised and pressed, or else boiled down after roasting: the liquid
which comes from it is collected and is found to be unctuous, and
as well suited as olive-oil for lamps, only that it gives out an unpleasant
odour.
The contrivances which they use against gnats, wherewith the country
swarms, are the following. In the parts of Egypt above the marshes
the inhabitants pass the night upon lofty towers, which are of great
service, as the gnats are unable to fly to any height on account of
the winds. In the marsh-country, where there are no towers, each man
possesses a net instead. By day it serves him to catch fish, while
at night he spreads it over the bed in which he is to rest, and creeping
in, goes to sleep underneath. The gnats, which, if he rolls himself
up in his dress or in a piece of muslin, are sure to bite through
the covering, do not so much as attempt to pass the net.
The vessels used in Egypt for the transport of merchandise are made
of the Acantha (Thorn), a tree which in its growth is very like the
Cyrenaic lotus, and from which there exudes a gum. They cut a quantity
of planks about two cubits in length from this tree, and then proceed
to their ship-building, arranging the planks like bricks, and attaching
them by ties to a number of long stakes or poles till the hull is
complete, when they lay the cross-planks on the top from side to side.
They give the boats no ribs, but caulk the seams with papyrus on the
inside. Each has a single rudder, which is driven straight through
the keel. The mast is a piece of acantha-wood, and the sails are made
of papyrus. These boats cannot make way against the current unless
there is a brisk breeze; they are, therefore, towed up-stream from
the shore: down-stream they are managed as follows. There is a raft
belonging to each, made of the wood of the tamarisk, fastened together
with a wattling of reeds; and also a stone bored through the middle
about two talents in weight. The raft is fastened to the vessel by
a rope, and allowed to float down the stream in front, while the stone
is attached by another rope astern. The result is that the raft, hurried
forward by the current, goes rapidly down the river, and drags the
"baris" (for so they call this sort of boat) after it; while the stone,
which is pulled along in the wake of the vessel, and lies deep in
the water, keeps the boat straight. There are a vast number of these
vessels in Egypt, and some of them are of many thousand talents' burthen.
When the Nile overflows, the country is converted into a sea, and
nothing appears but the cities, which look like the islands in the
Egean. At this season boats no longer keep the course of the river,
but sail right across the plain. On the voyage from Naucratis to Memphis
at this season, you pass close to the pyramids, whereas the usual
course is by the apex of the Delta, and the city of Cercasorus. You
can sail also from the maritime town of Canobus across the flat to
Naucratis, passing by the cities of Anthylla and Archandropolis.
The former of these cities, which is a place of note, is assigned
expressly to the wife of the ruler of Egypt for the time being, to
keep her in shoes. Such has been the custom ever since Egypt fell
under the Persian yoke. The other city seems to me to have got its
name of Archandropolis from Archander the Phthian, son of Achaeus,
and son-in-law of Danaus. There might certainly have been another
Archander; but, at any rate, the name is not Egyptian.
Thus far I have spoken of Egypt from my own observation, relating
what I myself saw, the ideas that I formed, and the results of my
own researches. What follows rests on the accounts given me by the
Egyptians, which shall now repeat, adding thereto some particulars
which fell under by own notice.
The priests said that Min was the first king of Egypt, and that it
was he who raised the dyke which protects Memphis from the inundations
of the Nile. Before his time the river flowed entirely along the sandy
range of hills which skirts Egypt on the side of Libya. He, however,
by banking up the river at the bend which it forms about a hundred
furlongs south of Memphis, laid the ancient channel dry, while he
dug a new course for the stream halfway between the two lines of hills.
To this day, the elbow which the Nile forms at the point where it
is forced aside into the new channel is guarded with the greatest
care by the Persians, and strengthened every year; for if the river
were to burst out at this place, and pour over the mound, there would
be danger of Memphis being completely overwhelmed by the flood. Min,
the first king, having thus, by turning the river, made the tract
where it used to run, dry land, proceeded in the first place to build
the city now called Memphis, which lies in the narrow part of Egypt;
after which he further excavated a lake outside the town, to the north
and west, communicating with the river, which was itself the eastern
boundary. Besides these works, he also, the priests said, built the
temple of Vulcan which stands within the city, a vast edifice, very
worthy of mention.
Next, they read me from a papyrus the names of three hundred and thirty
monarchs, who (they said) were his successors upon the throne. In
this number of generations there were eighteen Ethiopian kings, and
one queen who was a native; all the rest were kings and Egyptians.
The queen bore the same name as the Babylonian princess, namely, Nitocris.
They said that she succeeded her brother; he had been king of Egypt,
and was put to death by his subjects, who then placed her upon the
throne. Bent on avenging his death, she devised a cunning scheme by
which she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a
spacious underground chamber, and, on pretence of inaugurating it,
contrived the following:- Inviting to a banquet those of the Egyptians
whom she knew to have had the chief share in the murder of her brother,
she suddenly, as they were feasting, let the river in upon them by
means of a secret duct of large size. This and this only did they
tell me of her, except that, when she had done as I have said, she
threw herself into an apartment full of ashes, that she might escape
the vengeance whereto she would otherwise have been exposed.
The other kings, they said, were personages of no note or distinction,
and left no monuments of any account, with the exception of the last,
who was named Moeris. He left several memorials of his reign- the
northern gateway of the temple of Vulcan, the lake excavated by his
orders, whose dimensions I shall give presently, and the pyramids
built by him in the lake, the size of which will be stated when I
describe the lake itself wherein they stand. Such were his works:
the other kings left absolutely nothing.
Passing over these monarchs, therefore, I shall speak of the king
who reigned next, whose name was Sesostris. He, the priests said,
first of all proceeded in a fleet of ships of war from the Arabian
gulf along the shores of the Erythraean sea, subduing the nations
as he went, until he finally reached a sea which could not be navigated
by reason of the shoals. Hence he returned to Egypt, where, they told
me, he collected a vast armament, and made a progress by land across
the continent, conquering every people which fell in his way. In the
countries where the natives withstood his attack, and fought gallantly
for their liberties, he erected pillars, on which he inscribed his
own name and country, and how that he had here reduced the inhabitants
to subjection by the might of his arms: where, on the contrary, they
submitted readily and without a struggle, he inscribed on the pillars,
in addition to these particulars, an emblem to mark that they were
a nation of women, that is, unwarlike and effeminate.
In this way he traversed the whole continent of Asia, whence he passed
on into Europe, and made himself master of Scythia and of Thrace,
beyond which countries I do not think that his army extended its march.
For thus far the pillars which he erected are still visible, but in
the remoter regions they are no longer found. Returning to Egypt from
Thrace, he came, on his way, to the banks of the river Phasis. Here
I cannot say with any certainty what took place. Either he of his
own accord detached a body of troops from his main army and left them
to colonise the country, or else a certain number of his soldiers,
wearied with their long wanderings, deserted, and established themselves
on the banks of this stream.
There can be no doubt that the Colchians are an Egyptian race. Before
I heard any mention of the fact from others, I had remarked it myself.
After the thought had struck me, I made inquiries on the subject both
in Colchis and in Egypt, and I found that the Colchians had a more
distinct recollection of the Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of
them. Still the Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to
be descended from the army of Sesostris. My own conjectures were founded,
first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair,
which certainly amounts to but little, since several other nations
are so too; but further and more especially, on the circumstance that
the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, are the only nations
who have practised circumcision from the earliest times. The Phoenicians
and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the
custom of the Egyptians; and the Syrians who dwell about the rivers
Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macronians,
say that they have recently adopted it from the Colchians. Now these
are the only nations who use circumcision, and it is plain that they
all imitate herein the Egyptians. With respect to the Ethiopians,
indeed, I cannot decide whether they learnt the practice of the Egyptians,
or the Egyptians of them- it is undoubtedly of very ancient date in
Ethiopia- but that the others derived their knowledge of it from Egypt
is clear to me from the fact that the Phoenicians, when they come
to have commerce with the Greeks, cease to follow the Egyptians in
this custom, and allow their children to remain uncircumcised.
I will add a further proof to the identity of the Egyptians and the
Colchians. These two nations weave their linen in exactly the same
way, and this is a way entirely unknown to the rest of the world;
they also in their whole mode of life and in their language resemble
one another. The Colchian linen is called by the Greeks Sardinian,
while that which comes from Egypt is known as Egyptian.
The pillars which Sesostris erected in the conquered countries have
for the most part disappeared; but in the part of Syria called Palestine,
I myself saw them still standing, with the writing above-mentioned,
and the emblem distinctly visible. In Ionia also, there are two representations
of this prince engraved upon rocks, one on the road from Ephesus to
Phocaea, the other between Sardis and Smyrna. In each case the figure
is that of a man, four cubits and a span high, with a spear in his
right hand and a bow in his left, the rest of his costume being likewise
half Egyptian, half Ethiopian. There is an inscription across the
breast from shoulder to shoulder, in the sacred character of Egypt,
which says, "With my own shoulders I conquered this land." The conqueror
does not tell who he is, or whence he comes, though elsewhere Sesostris
records these facts. Hence it has been imagined by some of those who
have seen these forms, that they are figures of Memnon; but such as
think so err very widely from the truth.
This Sesostris, the priests went on to say, upon his return home,
accompanied by vast multitudes of the people whose countries he had
subdued, was received by his brother, whom he had made viceroy of
Egypt on his departure, at Daphnae near Pelusium, and invited by him
to a banquet, which he attended, together with his sons. Then his
brother piled a quantity of wood all round the building, and having
so done set it alight. Sesostris, discovering what had happened, took
counsel instantly with his wife, who had accompanied him to the feast,
and was advised by her to lay two of their six sons upon the fire,
and so make a bridge across the flames, whereby the rest might effect
their escape. Sesostris did as she recommended, and thus while two
of his sons were burnt to death, he himself and his other children
were saved.
The king then returned to his own land and took vengeance upon his
brother, after which he proceeded to make use of the multitudes whom
he had brought with him from the conquered countries, partly to drag
the huge masses of stone which were moved in the course of his reign
to the temple of Vulcan- partly to dig the numerous canals with which
the whole of Egypt is intersected. By these forced labours the entire
face of the country was changed; for whereas Egypt had formerly been
a region suited both for horses and carriages, henceforth it became
entirely unfit for either. Though a flat country throughout its whole
extent, it is now unfit for either horse or carriage, being cut up
by the canals, which are extremely numerous and run in all directions.
The king's object was to supply Nile water to the inhabitants of the
towns situated in the mid-country, and not lying upon the river; for
previously they had been obliged, after the subsidence of the floods,
to drink a brackish water which they obtained from wells.
Sesostris also, they declared, made a division of the soil of Egypt
among the inhabitants, assigning square plots of ground of equal size
to all, and obtaining his chief revenue from the rent which the holders
were required to pay him year by year. If the river carried away any
portion of a man's lot, he appeared before the king, and related what
had happened; upon which the king sent persons to examine, and determine
by measurement the exact extent of the loss; and thenceforth only
such a rent was demanded of him as was proportionate to the reduced
size of his land. From this practice, I think, geometry first came
to be known in Egypt, whence it passed into Greece. The sun-dial,
however, and the gnomon with the division of the day into twelve parts,
were received by the Greeks from the Babylonians.
Sesostris was king not only of Egypt, but also of Ethiopia. He was
the only Egyptian monarch who ever ruled over the latter country.
He left, as memorials of his reign, the stone statues which stand
in front of the temple of Vulcan, two of which, representing himself
and his wife, are thirty cubits in height, while the remaining four,
which represent his sons, are twenty cubits. These are the statues,
in front of which the priest of Vulcan, very many years afterwards,
would not allow Darius the Persian to place a statue of himself; "because,"
he said, "Darius had not equalled the achievements of Sesostris the
Egyptian: for while Sesostris had subdued to the full as many nations
as ever Darius had brought under, he had likewise conquered the Scythians,
whom Darius had failed to master. It was not fair, therefore, that
he should erect his statue in front of the offerings of a king, whose
deeds he had been unable to surpass." Darius, they say, pardoned the
freedom of this speech.
On the death of Sesostris, his son Pheron, the priests said, mounted
the throne. He undertook no warlike expeditions; being struck with
blindness, owing to the following circumstance. The river had swollen
to the unusual height of eighteen cubits, and had overflowed all the
fields, when, a sudden wind arising, the water rose in great waves.
Then the king, in a spirit of impious violence, seized his spear,
and hurled it into the strong eddies of the stream. Instantly he was
smitten with disease of the eyes, from which after a little while
he became blind, continuing without the power of vision for ten years.
At last, in the eleventh year, an oracular announcement reached him
from the city of Buto, to the effect, that "the time of his punishment
had run out, and he should recover his sight by washing his eyes with
urine. He must find a woman who had been faithful to her husband,
and had never preferred to him another man." The king, therefore,
first of all made trial of his wife, but to no purpose he continued
as blind as before. So he made the experiment with other women, until
at length he succeeded, and in this way recovered his sight. Hereupon
he assembled all the women, except the last, and bringing them to
the city which now bears the name of Erythrabolus (Red-soil), he there
burnt them all, together with the place itself. The woman to whom
he owed his cure, he married, and after his recovery was complete,
he presented offerings to all the temples of any note, among which
the best worthy of mention are the two stone obelisks which he gave
to the temple of the Sun. These are magnificent works; each is made
of a single stone, eight cubits broad, and a hundred cubits in height.
Pheron, they said, was succeeded by a man of Memphis, whose name,
in the language of the Greeks, was Proteus. There is a sacred precinct
of this king in Memphis, which is very beautiful, and richly adorned,
situated south of the great temple of Vulcan. Phoenicians from the
city of Tyre dwell all round this precinct, and the whole place is
known by the name of "the camp of the Tyrians." Within the enclosure
stands a temple, which is called that of Venus the Stranger. I conjecture
the building to have been erected to Helen, the daughter of Tyndarus;
first, because she, as I have heard say, passed some time at the court
of Proteus; and secondly, because the temple is dedicated to Venus
the Stranger; for among all the many temples of Venus there is no
other where the goddess bears this title.
The priests, in answer to my inquiries on the subject of Helen, informed
me of the following particulars. When Alexander had carried off Helen
from Sparta, he took ship and sailed homewards. On his way across
the Egean a gale arose, which drove him from his course and took him
down to the sea of Egypt; hence, as the wind did not abate, he was
carried on to the coast, when he went ashore, landing at the Salt-Pans,
in that mouth of the Nile which is now called the Canobic. At this
place there stood upon the shore a temple, which still exists, dedicated
to Hercules. If a slave runs away from his master, and taking sanctuary
at this shrine gives himself up to the god, and receives certain sacred
marks upon his person, whosoever his master may be, he cannot lay
hand on him. This law still remained unchanged to my time. Hearing,
therefore, of the custom of the place, the attendants of Alexander
deserted him, and fled to the temple, where they sat as suppliants.
While there, wishing to damage their master, they accused him to the
Egyptians, narrating all the circumstances of the rape of Helen and
the wrong done to Menelaus. These charges they brought, not only before
the priests, but also before the warden of that mouth of the river,
whose name was Thonis.
As soon as he received the intelligence, Thonis sent a message to
Proteus, who was at Memphis, to this effect: "A stranger is arrived
from Greece; he is by race a Teucrian, and has done a wicked deed
in the country from which he is come. Having beguiled the wife of
the man whose guest he was, he carried her away with him, and much
treasure also. Compelled by stress of weather, he has now put in here.
Are we to let him depart as he came, or shall we seize what he has
brought?" Proteus replied, "Seize the man, be he who he may, that
has dealt thus wickedly with his friend, and bring him before me,
that I may hear what he will say for himself."
Thonis, on receiving these orders, arrested Alexander, and stopped
the departure of his ships; then, taking with him Alexander, Helen,
the treasures, and also the fugitive slaves, he went up to Memphis.
When all were arrived, Proteus asked Alexander, "who he was, and whence
he had come?" Alexander replied by giving his descent, the name of
his country, and a true account of his late voyage. Then Proteus questioned
him as to how he got possession of Helen. In his reply Alexander became
confused, and diverged from the truth, whereon the slaves interposed,
confuted his statements, and told the whole history of the crime.
Finally, Proteus delivered judgment as follows: "Did I not regard
it as a matter of the utmost consequence that no stranger driven to
my country by adverse winds should ever be put to death, I would certainly
have avenged the Greek by slaying thee. Thou basest of men,- after
accepting hospitality, to do so wicked a deed! First, thou didst seduce
the wife of thy own host- then, not content therewith, thou must violently
excite her mind, and steal her away from her husband. Nay, even so
thou wert not satisfied, but on leaving, thou must plunder the house
in which thou hadst been a guest. Now then, as I think it of the greatest
importance to put no stranger to death, I suffer thee to depart; but
the woman and the treasures I shall not permit to be carried away.
Here they must stay, till the Greek stranger comes in person and takes
them back with him. For thyself and thy companions, I command thee
to begone from my land within the space of three days- and I warn
you, that otherwise at the end of that time you will be treated as
enemies."
Such was the tale told me by the priests concerning the arrival of
Helen at the court of Proteus. It seems to me that Homer was acquainted
with this story, and while discarding it, because he thought it less
adapted for epic poetry than the version which he followed, showed
that it was not unknown to him. This is evident from the travels which
he assigns to Alexander in the Iliad- and let it be borne in mind
that he has nowhere else contradicted himself- making him be carried
out of his course on his return with Helen, and after divers wanderings
come at last to Sidon in Phoenicia. The passage is in the Bravery
of Diomed, and the words are as follows:-
There were the robes, many-coloured, the work of Sidonian women:
They from Sidon had come, what time god-shaped Alexander
Over the broad sea brought, that way, the high-born Helen.
In the Odyssey also the same fact is alluded to, in these words:-
Such, so wisely prepared, were the drugs that her stores afforded,
Excellent; gift which once Polydamna, partner of Thonis,
Gave her in Egypt, where many the simples that grow in the meadows,
Potent to cure in part, in part as potent to injure.
Menelaus too, in the same poem, thus addresses Telemachus:-
Much did I long to return, but the Gods still kept me in Egypt-
Angry because I had failed to pay them their hecatombs duly.
In these places Homer shows himself acquainted with the voyage of
Alexander to Egypt, for Syria borders on Egypt, and the Phoenicians,
to whom Sidon belongs, dwell in Syria.
From these various passages, and from that about Sidon especially,
it is clear that Homer did not write the Cypria. For there it is said
that Alexander arrived at Ilium with Helen on the third day after
he left Sparta, the wind having been favourable, and the sea smooth;
whereas in the Iliad, the poet makes him wander before he brings her
home. Enough, however, for the present of Homer and the Cypria.
I made inquiry of the priests whether the story which the Greeks tell
about Ilium is a fable, or no. In reply they related the following
particulars, of which they declared that Menelaus had himself informed
them. After the rape of Helen, a vast army of Greeks, wishing to render
help to Menelaus, set sail for the Teucrian territory; on their arrival
they disembarked, and formed their camp, after which they sent ambassadors
to Ilium, of whom Menelaus was one. The embassy was received within
the walls, and demanded the restoration of Helen with the treasures
which Alexander had carried off, and likewise required satisfaction
for the wrong done. The Teucrians gave at once the answer in which
they persisted ever afterwards, backing their assertions sometimes
even with oaths, to wit, that neither Helen, nor the treasures claimed,
were in their possession,- both the one and the other had remained,
they said, in Egypt; and it was not just to come upon them for what
Proteus, king of Egypt, was detaining. The Greeks, imagining that
the Teucrians were merely laughing at them, laid siege to the town,
and never rested until they finally took it. As, however, no Helen
was found, and they were still told the same story, they at length
believed in its truth, and despatched Menelaus to the court of Proteus.
So Menelaus travelled to Egypt, and on his arrival sailed up the river
as far as Memphis, and related all that had happened. He met with
the utmost hospitality, received Helen back unharmed, and recovered
all his treasures. After this friendly treatment Menelaus, they said,
behaved most unjustly towards the Egyptians; for as it happened that
at the time when he wanted to take his departure, he was detained
by the wind being contrary, and as he found this obstruction continue,
he had recourse to a most wicked expedient. He seized, they said,
two children of the people of the country, and offered them up in
sacrifice. When this became known, the indignation of the people was
stirred, and they went in pursuit of Menelaus, who, however, escaped
with his ships to Libya, after which the Egyptians could not say whither
he went. The rest they knew full well, partly by the inquiries which
they had made, and partly from the circumstances having taken place
in their own land, and therefore not admitting of doubt.
Such is the account given by the Egyptian priests, and I am myself
inclined to regard as true all that they say of Helen from the following
considerations:- If Helen had been at Troy, the inhabitants would,
I think, have given her up to the Greeks, whether Alexander consented
to it or no. For surely neither Priam, nor his family, could have
been so infatuated as to endanger their own persons, their children,
and their city, merely that Alexander might possess Helen. At any
rate, if they determined to refuse at first, yet afterwards when so
many of the Trojans fell on every encounter with the Greeks, and Priam
too in each battle lost a son, or sometimes two, or three, or even
more, if we may credit the epic poets, I do not believe that even
if Priam himself had been married to her he would have declined to
deliver her up, with the view of bringing the series of calamities
to a close. Nor was it as if Alexander had been heir to the crown,
in which case he might have had the chief management of affairs, since
Priam was already old. Hector, who was his elder brother, and a far
braver man, stood before him, and was the heir to the kingdom on the
death of their father Priam. And it could not be Hector's interest
to uphold his brother in his wrong, when it brought such dire calamities
upon himself and the other Trojans. But the fact was that they had
no Helen to deliver, and so they told the Greeks, but the Greeks would
not believe what they said- Divine Providence, as I think, so willing,
that by their utter destruction it might be made evident to all men
that when great wrongs are done, the gods will surely visit them with
great punishments. Such, at least, is my view of the matter.
1. When Proteus died, Rhampsinitus, the priests informed me, succeeded
to the throne. His monuments were the western gateway of the temple
of Vulcan, and the two statues which stand in front of this gateway,
called by the Egyptians, the one Summer, the other Winter, each twenty-five
cubits in height. The statue of Summer, which is the northernmost
of the two, is worshipped by the natives, and has offerings made to
it; that of Winter, which stands towards the south, is treated in
exactly the contrary way. King Rhampsinitus was possessed, they said,
of great riches in silver- indeed to such an amount, that none of
the princes, his successors, surpassed or even equalled his wealth.
For the better custody of this money, he proposed to build a vast
chamber of hewn stone, one side of which was to form a part of the
outer wall of his palace. The builder, therefore, having designs upon
the treasures, contrived, as he was making the building, to insert
in this wall a stone, which could easily be removed from its place
by two men, or even by one. So the chamber was finished, and the king's
money stored away in it. Time passed, and the builder fell sick, when
finding his end approaching, he called for his two sons, and related
to them the contrivance he had made in the king's treasure-chamber,
telling them it was for their sakes he had done it, that so they might
always live in affluence. Then he gave them clear directions concerning
the mode of removing the stone, and communicated the measurements,
bidding them carefully keep the secret, whereby they would be Comptrollers
of the Royal Exchequer so long as they lived. Then the father died,
and the sons were not slow in setting to work: they went by night
to the palace, found the stone in the wall of the building, and having
removed it with ease, plundered the treasury of a round sum.
2. When the king next paid a visit to the apartment, he was astonished
to see that the money was sunk in some of the vessels wherein it was
stored away. Whom to accuse, however, he knew not, as the seals were
all perfect, and the fastenings of the room secure. Still each time
that he repeated his visits, he found that more money was gone. The
thieves in truth never stopped, but plundered the treasury ever more
and more. At last the king determined to have some traps made, and
set near the vessels which contained his wealth. This was done, and
when the thieves came, as usual, to the treasure-chamber, and one
of them entering through the aperture, made straight for the jars,
suddenly he found himself caught in one of the traps. Perceiving that
he was lost, he instantly called his brother and telling him what
had happened, entreated him to enter as quickly as possible and cut
off his head, that when his body should be discovered it might not
be recognised, which would have the effect of bringing ruin upon both.
The other thief thought the advice good, and was persuaded to follow
it then, fitting the stone into its place, he went home, taking with
him his brother's head.
3. When day dawned, the king came into the room, and marvelled greatly
to see the body of the thief in the trap without a head, while the
building was still whole, and neither entrance nor exit was to be
seen anywhere. In this perplexity he commanded the body of the dead
man to be hung up outside the palace wall, and set a guard to watch
it, with orders that if any persons were seen weeping or lamenting
near the place, they should be seized and brought before him. When
the mother heard of this exposure of the corpse of her son, she took
it sorely to heart, and spoke to her surviving child, bidding him
devise some plan or other to get back the body, and threatening, that
if he did not exert himself, she would go herself to the king, and
denounce him as the robber.
4. The son said all he could to persuade her to let the matter rest,
but in vain; she still continued to trouble him, until at last he
yielded to her importunity, and contrived as follows:- Filling some
skins with wine, he loaded them on donkeys, which he drove before
him till he came to the place where the guards were watching the dead
body, when pulling two or three of the skins towards him, he untied
some of the necks which dangled by the asses' sides. The wine poured
freely out, whereupon he began to beat his head, and shout with all
his might, seeming not to know which of the donkeys he should turn
to first. When the guards saw the wine running, delighted to profit
by the occasion, they rushed one and all into the road, each with
some vessel or other, and caught the liquor as it was spilling. The
driver pretended anger, and loaded them with abuse; whereon they did
their best to pacify him, until at last he appeared to soften, and
recover his good humour, drove his asses aside out of the road, and
set to work to rearrange their burthens; meanwhile, as he talked and
chatted with the guards, one of them began to rally him, and make
him laugh, whereupon he gave them one of the skins as a gift. They
now made up their minds to sit down and have a drinking-bout where
they were, so they begged him to remain and drink with them. Then
the man let himself be persuaded, and stayed. As the drinking went
on, they grew very friendly together, so presently he gave them another
skin, upon which they drank so copiously that they were all overcome
with the liquor, and growing drowsy lay down, and fell asleep on the
spot. The thief waited till it was the dead of the night, and then
took down the body of his brother; after which, in mockery, he shaved
off the right side of all the soldiers' beards, and so left them.
Laying his brother's body upon the asses, he carried it home to his
mother, having thus accomplished the thing that she had required of
him.
5. When it came to the king's ears that the thief's body was stolen
away, he was sorely vexed. Wishing, therefore, whatever it might cost,
to catch the man who had contrived the trick, he had recourse (the
priests said) to an expedient, which I can scarcely credit. He sent
his own daughter to the common stews, with orders to admit all comers,
but to require every man to tell her what was the cleverest and wickedest
thing he had done in the whole course of his life. If any one in reply
told her the story of the thief, she was to lay hold of him and not
allow him to get away. The daughter did as her father willed, whereon
the thief, who was well aware of the king's motive, felt a desire
to outdo him in craft and cunning. Accordingly he contrived the following
plan:- He procured the corpse of a man lately dead, and cutting of
one of the arms at the shoulder, put it under his dress, and so went
to the king's daughter. When she put the question to him as she had
done to all the rest, he replied that the wickedest thing he had ever
done was cutting off the head of his brother when he was caught in
a trap in the king's treasury, and the cleverest was making the guards
drunk and carrying off the body. As he spoke, the princess caught
at him, but the thief took advantage of the darkness to hold out to
her the hand of the corpse. Imagining it to be his own hand, she seized
and held it fast; while the thief, leaving it in her grasp, made his
escape by the door.
6. The king, when word was brought him of this fresh success, amazed
at the sagacity and boldness of the man, sent messengers to all the
towns in his dominions to proclaim a free pardon for the thief, and
to promise him a rich reward, if he came and made himself known. The
thief took the king at his word, and came boldly into his presence;
whereupon Rhampsinitus, greatly admiring him, and looking on him as
the most knowing of men, gave him his daughter in marriage. "The Egyptians,"
he said, "excelled all the rest of the world in wisdom, and this man
excelled all other Egyptians."
The same king, I was also informed by the priests, afterwards descended
alive into the region which the Greeks call Hades, and there played
at dice with Ceres, sometimes winning and sometimes suffering defeat.
After a while he returned to earth, and brought with him a golden
napkin, a gift which he had received from the goddess. From this descent
of Rhampsinitus into Hades, and return to earth again, the Egyptians,
I was told, instituted a festival, which they certainly celebrated
in my day. On what occasion it was that they instituted it, whether
upon this or upon any other, I cannot determine. The following are
the ceremonies:- On a certain day in the year the priests weave a
mande, and binding the eyes of one of their number with a fillet,
they put the mantle upon him, and take him with them into the roadway
conducting to the temple of Ceres, when they depart and leave him
to himself. Then the priest, thus blindfolded, is led (they say) by
two wolves to the temple of Ceres, distant twenty furlongs from the
city, where he stays awhile, after which he is brought back from the
temple by the wolves, and left upon the spot where they first joined
him.
Such as think the tales told by the Egyptians credible are free to
accept them for history. For my own part, I propose to myself throughout
my whole work faithfully to record the traditions of the several nations.
The Egyptians maintain that Ceres and Bacchus preside in the realms
below. They were also the first to broach the opinion that the soul
of man is immortal and that, when the body dies, it enters into the
form of an animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from
one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms of
all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air,
after which it enters again into a human frame, and is born anew.
The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand
years. There are Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a later
date, who have borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians, and put
it forward as their own. I could mention their names, but I abstain
from doing so.
Till the death of Rhampsinitus, the priests said, Egypt was excellently
governed, and flourished greatly; but after him Cheops succeeded to
the throne, and plunged into all manner of wickedness. He closed the
temples, and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice, compelling
them instead to labour, one and all, in his service. Some were required
to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile from the quarries in the
Arabian range of hills; others received the blocks after they had
been conveyed in boats across the river, and drew them to the range
of hills called the Libyan. A hundred thousand men laboured constantly,
and were relieved every three months by a fresh lot. It took ten years'
oppression of the people to make the causeway for the conveyance of
the stones, a work not much inferior, in my judgment, to the pyramid
itself. This causeway is five furlongs in length, ten fathoms wide,
and in height, at the highest part, eight fathoms. It is built of
polished stone, and is covered with carvings of animals. To make it
took ten years, as I said- or rather to make the causeway, the works
on the mound where the pyramid stands, and the underground chambers,
which Cheops intended as vaults for his own use: these last were built
on a sort of island, surrounded by water introduced from the Nile
by a canal. The pyramid itself was twenty years in building. It is
a square, eight hundred feet each way, and the height the same, built
entirely of polished stone, fitted together with the utmost care.
The stones of which it is composed are none of them less than thirty
feet in length.
The pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called,
or, according to others, altar-wise. After laying the stones for the
base, they raised the remaining stones to their places by means of
machines formed of short wooden planks. The first machine raised them
from the ground to the top of the first step. On this there was another
machine, which received the stone upon its arrival, and conveyed it
to the second step, whence a third machine advanced it still higher.
Either they had as many machines as there were steps in the pyramid,
or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being easily moved,
was transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose- both accounts
are given, and therefore I mention both. The upper portion of the
pyramid was finished first, then the middle, and finally the part
which was lowest and nearest the ground. There is an inscription in
Egyptian characters on the pyramid which records the quantity of radishes,
onions, and garlic consumed by the labourers who constructed it; and
I perfectly well remember that the interpreter who read the writing
to me said that the money expended in this way was 1600 talents of
silver. If this then is a true record, what a vast sum must have been
spent on the iron tools used in the work, and on the feeding and clothing
of the labourers, considering the length of time the work lasted,
which has already been stated, and the additional time- no small space,
I imagine- which must have been occupied by the quarrying of the stones,
their conveyance, and the formation of the underground apartments.
The wickedness of Cheops reached to such a pitch that, when he had
spent all his treasures and wanted more, he sent his daughter to the
stews, with orders to procure him a certain sum- how much I cannot
say, for I was not told; she procured it, however, and at the same
time, bent on leaving a monument which should perpetuate her own memory,
she required each man to make her a present of a stone towards the
works which she contemplated. With these stones she built the pyramid
which stands midmost of the three that are in front of the great pyramid,
measuring along each side a hundred and fifty feet.
Cheops reigned, the Egyptians said, fifty years, and was succeeded
at his demise by Chephren, his brother.
Chephren imitated the conduct of his predecessor, and, like him, built
a pyramid, which did not, however, equal the dimensions of his brother's.
Of this I am certain, for I measured them both myself. It has no subterraneous
apartments, nor any canal from the Nile to supply it with water, as
the other pyramid has. In that, the Nile water, introduced through
an artificial duct, surrounds an island, where the body of Cheops
is said to lie. Chephren built his pyramid close to the great pyramid
of Cheops, and of the same dimensions, except that he lowered the
height forty feet. For the basement he employed the many-coloured
stone of Ethiopia. These two pyramids stand both on the same hill,
an elevation not far short of a hundred feet in height. The reign
of Chephren lasted fifty-six years.
Thus the affliction of Egypt endured for the space of one hundred
and six years, during the whole of which time the temples were shut
up and never opened. The Egyptians so detest the memory of these kings
that they do not much like even to mention their names. Hence they
commonly call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd who at that
time fed his flocks about the place.
After Chephren, Mycerinus (they said), son of Cheops, ascended the
throne. This prince disapproved the conduct of his father, re-opened
the temples, and allowed the people, who were ground down to the lowest
point of misery, to return to their occupations, and to resume the
practice of sacrifice. His justice in the decision of causes was beyond
that of all the former kings. The Egyptians praise him in this respect
more highly than any of their other monarchs, declaring that he not
only gave his judgments with fairness, but also, when any one was
dissatisfied with his sentence, made compensation to him out of his
own purse, and thus pacified his anger. Mycerinus had established
his character for mildness, and was acting as I have described, when
the stroke of calamity fell on him. First of all his daughter died,
the only child that he possessed. Experiencing a bitter grief at this
visitation, in his sorrow he conceived the wish to entomb his child
in some unusual way. He therefore caused a cow to be made of wood,
and after the interior had been hollowed out, he had the whole surface
coated with gold; and in this novel tomb laid the dead body of his
daughter.
The cow was not placed under ground, but continued visible to my times:
it was at Sais, in the royal palace, where it occupied a chamber richly
adorned. Every day there are burnt before it aromatics of every kind;
and all night long a lamp is kept burning in the apartment. In an
adjoining chamber are statues which the priests at Sais, declared
to represent the various concubines of Mycerinus. They are colossal
figures in wood, of the number of about twenty, and are represented
naked. Whose images they really are, I cannot say- I can only repeat
the account which was given to me.
Concerning these colossal figures and the sacred cow, there is also
another tale narrated, which runs thus: "Mycerinus was enamoured of
his daughter, and offered her violence- the damsel for grief hanged
herself, and Mycerinus entombed her in the cow. Then her mother cut
off the hands of all her tiring- maids, because they had sided with
the father, and betrayed the child; and so the statues of the maids
have no hands." All this is mere fable in my judgment, especially
what is said about the hands of the colossal statues. I could plainly
see that the figures had only lost their hands through the effect
of time. They had dropped off, and were still lying on the ground
about the feet of the statues.
As for the cow, the greater portion of it is hidden by a scarlet coverture;
the head and neck, however, which are visible, are coated very thickly
with gold, and between the horns there is a representation in gold
of the orb of the sun. The figure is not erect, but lying down, with
the limbs under the body; the dimensions being fully those of a large
animal of the kind. Every year it is taken from the apartment where
it is kept, and exposed to the light of day- this is done at the season
when the Egyptians beat themselves in honour of one of their gods,
whose name I am unwilling to mention in connection with such a matter.
They say that the daughter of Mycerinus requested her father in her
dying moments to allow her once a year to see the sun.
After the death of his daughter, Mycerinus was visited with a second
calamity, of which I shall now proceed to give an account. An oracle
reached him from the town of Buto, which said, "Six years only shalt
thou live upon the earth, and in the seventh thou shalt end thy days."
Mycerinus, indignant, sent an angry message to the oracle, reproaching
the god with his injustice- "My father and uncle," he said, "though
they shut up the temples, took no thought of the gods, and destroyed
multitudes of men, nevertheless enjoyed a long life; I, who am pious,
am to die so soon!" There came in reply a second message from the
oracle- "For this very reason is thy life brought so quickly to a
close- thou hast not done as it behoved thee. Egypt was fated to suffer
affliction one hundred and fifty years- the two kings who preceded
thee upon the throne understood this- thou hast not understood it."
Mycerinus, when this answer reached him, perceiving that his doom
was fixed, had prepared, which he lighted every day at eventime, and
feasted and enjoyed himself unceasingly both day and night, moving
about in the marsh-country and the woods, and visiting all the places
that he heard were agreeable sojourns. His wish was to prove the oracle
false, by turning the nights into days, and so living twelve years
in the space of six.
He too left a pyramid, but much inferior in size to his father's.
It is a square, each side of which falls short of three plethra by
twenty feet, and is built for half its height of the stone of Ethiopia.
Some of the Greeks call it the work of Rhodopis the courtesan, but
they report falsely. It seems to me that these persons cannot have
any real knowledge who Rhodopis was; otherwise they would scarcely
have ascribed to her a work on which uncounted treasures, so to speak,
must have been expended. Rhodopis also lived during the reign of Amasis,
not of Mycerinus, and was thus very many years later than the time
of the kings who built the pyramids. She was a Thracian by birth,
and was the slave of Iadmon, son of Hephaestopolis, a Samian. Aesop,
the fable-writer, was one of her fellow-slaves. That Aesop belonged
to Iadmon is proved by many facts- among others, by this. When the
Delphians, in obedience to the command of the oracle, made proclamation
that if any one claimed compensation for the murder of Aesop he should
receive it, the person who at last came forward was Iadmon, grandson
of the former Iadmon, and he received the compensation. Aesop therefore
must certainly have been the former Iadmon's slave.
Rhodopis really arrived in Egypt under the conduct of Xantheus the
Samian; she was brought there to exercise her trade, but was redeemed
for a vast sum by Charaxus, a Mytilenaean, the son of Scamandronymus,
and brother of Sappho the poetess. After thus obtaining her freedom,
she remained in Egypt, and, as she was very beautiful, amassed great
wealth, for a person in her condition; not, however, enough to enable
her to erect such a work as this pyramid. Any one who likes may go
and see to what the tenth part of her wealth amounted, and he will
thereby learn that her riches must not be imagined to have been very
wonderfully great. Wishing to leave a memorial of herself in Greece,
she determined to have something made the like of which was not to
be found in any temple, and to offer it at the shrine at Delphi. So
she set apart a tenth of her possessions, and purchased with the money
a quantity of iron spits, such as are fit for roasting oxen whole,
whereof she made a present to the oracle. They are still to be seen
there, lying of a heap, behind the altar which the Chians dedicated,
opposite the sanctuary. Naucratis seems somehow to be the place where
such women are most attractive. First there was this Rhodopis of whom
we have been speaking, so celebrated a person that her name came to
be familiar to all the Greeks; and, afterwards, there was another,
called Archidice, notorious throughout Greece, though not so much
talked of as her predecessor. Charaxus, after ransoming Rhodopis,
returned to Mytilene, and was often lashed by Sappho in her poetry.
But enough has been said on the subject of this courtesan.
After Mycerinus, the priests said, Asychis ascended the throne. He
built the eastern gateway of the temple of Vulcan, which in size and
beauty far surpasses the other three. All the four gateways have figures
graven on them, and a vast amount of architectural ornament, but the
gateway of Asychis is by far the most richly adorned. In the reign
of this king, money being scarce and commercial dealings straitened,
a law was passed that the borrower might pledge his father's body
to raise the sum whereof he had need. A proviso was appended to this
law, giving the lender authority over the entire sepulchre of the
borrower, so that a man who took up money under this pledge, if he
died without paying the debt, could not obtain burial either in his
own ancestral tomb, or in any other, nor could he during his lifetime
bury in his own tomb any member of his family. The same king, desirous
of eclipsing all his predecessors upon the throne, left as a monument
of his reign a pyramid of brick. It bears an inscription, cut in stone,
which runs thus:- "Despise me not in comparison with the stone pyramids;
for I surpass them all, as much as Jove surpasses the other gods.
A pole was plunged into a lake, and the mud which clave thereto was
gathered; and bricks were made of the mud, and so I was formed." Such
were the chief actions of this prince.
He was succeeded on the throne, they said, by a blind man, a native
of Anysis, whose own name also was Anysis. Under him Egypt was invaded
by a vast army of Ethiopians, led by Sabacos, their king. The blind
Anysis fled away to the marsh-country, and the Ethiopian was lord
of the land for fifty years, during which his mode of rule was the
following:- When an Egyptian was guilty of an offence, his plan was
not to punish him with death: instead of so doing, he sentenced him,
according to the nature of his crime, to raise the ground to a greater
or a less extent in the neighbourhood of the city to which he belonged.
Thus the cities came to be even more elevated than they were before.
As early as the time of Sesostris, they had been raised by those who
dug the canals in his reign; this second elevation of the soil under
the Ethiopian king gave them a very lofty position. Among the many
cities which thus attained to a great elevation, none (I think) was
raised so much as the town called Bubastis, where there is a temple
of the goddess Bubastis, which well deserves to be described. Other
temples may be grander, and may have cost more in the building, but
there is none so pleasant to the eye as this of Bubastis. The Bubastis
of the Egyptians is the same as the Artemis (Diana) of the Greeks.
The following is a description of this edifice:- Excepting the entrance,
the whole forms an island. Two artificial channels from the Nile,
one on either side of the temple, encompass the building, leaving
only a narrow passage by which it is approached. These channels are
each a hundred feet wide, and are thickly shaded with trees. The gateway
is sixty feet in height, and is ornamented with figures cut upon the
stone, six cubits high and well worthy of notice. The temple stands
in the middle of the city, and is visible on all sides as one walks
round it; for as the city has been raised up by embankment, while
the temple has been left untouched in its original condition, you
look down upon it wheresoever you are. A low wall runs round the enclosure,
having figures engraved upon it, and inside there is a grove of beautiful
tall trees growing round the shrine, which contains the image of the
goddess. The enclosure is a furlong in length, and the same in breadth.
The entrance to it is by a road paved with stone for a distance of
about three furlongs, which passes straight through the market-place
with an easterly direction, and is about four hundred feet in width.
Trees of an extraordinary height grow on each side the road, which
conducts from the temple of Bubastis to that of Mercury.
The Ethiopian finally quitted Egypt, the priests said, by a hasty
flight under the following circumstances. He saw in his sleep a vision:-
a man stood by his side, and counselled him to gather together all
the priests of Egypt and cut every one of them asunder. On this, according
to the account which he himself gave, it came into his mind that the
gods intended hereby to lead him to commit an act of sacrilege, which
would be sure to draw down upon him some punishment either at the
hands of gods or men. So he resolved not to do the deed suggested
to him, but rather to retire from Egypt, as the time during which
it was fated that he should hold the country had now (he thought)
expired. For before he left Ethiopia he had been told by the oracles
which are venerated there, that he was to reign fifty years over Egypt.
The years were now fled, and the dream had come to trouble him; he
therefore of his own accord withdrew from the land.
As soon as Sabacos was gone, the blind king left the marshes, and
resumed the government. He had lived in the marsh-region the whole
time, having formed for himself an island there by a mixture of earth
and ashes. While he remained, the natives had orders to bring him
food unbeknown to the Ethiopian, and latterly, at his request, each
man had brought him, with the food, a certain quantity of ashes. Before
Amyrtaeus, no one was able to discover the site of this island, which
continued unknown to the kings of Egypt who preceded him on the throne
for the space of seven hundred years and more. The name which it bears
is Elbo. It is about ten furlongs across in each direction.
The next king, I was told, was a priest of Vulcan, called Sethos.
This monarch despised and neglected the warrior class of the Egyptians,
as though he did not need their services. Among other indignities
which he offered them, he took from them the lands which they had
possessed under all the previous kings, consisting of twelve acres
of choice land for each warrior. Afterwards, therefore, when Sanacharib,
king of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched his vast army into Egypt,
the warriors one and all refused to come to his aid. On this the monarch,
greatly distressed, entered into the inner sanctuary, and, before
the image of the god, bewailed the fate which impended over him. As
he wept he fell asleep, and dreamed that the god came and stood at
his side, bidding him be of good cheer, and go boldly forth to meet
the Arabian host, which would do him no hurt, as he himself would
send those who should help him. Sethos, then, relying on the dream,
collected such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, who
were none of them warriors, but traders, artisans, and market people;
and with these marched to Pelusium, which commands the entrance into
Egypt, and there pitched his camp. As the two armies lay here opposite
one another, there came in the night, a multitude of field-mice, which
devoured all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy, and ate the
thongs by which they managed their shields. Next morning they commenced
their fight, and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms with which
to defend themselves. There stands to this day in the temple of Vulcan,
a stone statue of Sethos, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription
to this effect- "Look on me, and learn to reverence the gods."
Thus far I have spoken on the authority of the Egyptians and their
priests. They declare that from their first king to this last-mentioned
monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three hundred and forty-one
generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both of their
kings, and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now three
hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations
filling up the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make
thirteen hundred and forty years. Thus the whole number of years is
eleven thousand, three hundred and forty; in which entire space, they
said, no god had ever appeared in a human form; nothing of this kind
had happened either under the former or under the later Egyptian kings.
The sun, however, had within this period of time, on four several
occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice rising where he now
sets, and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no degree
affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the
river, remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in
the diseases or the deaths.
When Hecataeus the historian was at Thebes, and, discoursing of his
genealogy, traced his descent to a god in the person of his sixteenth
ancestor, the priests of Jupiter did to him exactly as they afterwards
did to me, though I made no boast of my family. They led me into the
inner sanctuary, which is a spacious chamber, and showed me a multitude
of colossal statues, in wood, which they counted up, and found to
amount to the exact number they had said; the custom being for every
high priest during his lifetime to set up his statue in the temple.
As they showed me the figures and reckoned them up, they assured me
that each was the son of the one preceding him; and this they repeated
throughout the whole line, beginning with the representation of the
priest last deceased, and continuing till they had completed the series.
When Hecataeus, in giving his genealogy, mentioned a god as his sixteenth
ancestor, the priests opposed their genealogy to his, going through
this list, and refusing to allow that any man was ever born of a god.
Their colossal figures were each, they said, a Piromis, born of a
Piromis, and the number of them was three hundred and forty-five;
through the whole series Piromis followed Piromis, and the line did
not run up either to a god or a hero. The word Piromis may be rendered
"gentleman."
Of such a nature were, they said, the beings represented by these
images- they were very far indeed from being gods. However, in the
times anterior to them it was otherwise; then Egypt had gods for its
rulers, who dwelt upon the earth with men, one being always supreme
above the rest. The last of these was Horus, the son of Osiris, called
by the Greeks Apollo. He deposed Typhon, and ruled over Egypt as its
last god-king. Osiris is named Dionysus (Bacchus) by the Greeks.
The Greeks regard Hercules, Bacchus, and Pan as the youngest of the
gods. With the Egyptians, contrariwise, Pan is exceedingly ancient,
and belongs to those whom they call "the eight gods," who existed
before the rest. Hercules is one of the gods of the second order,
who are known as "the twelve"; and Bacchus belongs to the gods of
the third order, whom the twelve produced. I have already mentioned
how many years intervened according to the Egyptians between the birth
of Hercules and the reign of Amasis. From Pan to this period they
count a still longer time; and even from Bacchus, who is the youngest
of the three, they reckon fifteen thousand years to the reign of that
king. In these matters they say they cannot be mistaken, as they have
always kept count of the years, and noted them in their registers.
But from the present day to the time of Bacchus, the reputed son of
Semele, daughter of Cadmus, is a period of not more than sixteen hundred
years; to that of Hercules, son of Alcmena, is about nine hundred;
while to the time of Pan, son of Penelope (Pan, according to the Greeks,
was her child by Mercury), is a shorter space than to the Trojan war,
eight hundred years or thereabouts.
It is open to all to receive whichever he may prefer of these two
traditions; my own opinion about them has been already declared. If
indeed these gods had been publicly known, and had grown old in Greece,
as was the case with Hercules, son of Amphitryon, Bacchus, son of
Semele, and Pan, son of Penelope, it might have been said that the
last-mentioned personages were men who bore the names of certain previously
existing deities. But Bacchus, according to the Greek tradition, was
no sooner born than he was sewn up in Jupiter's thigh, and carried
off to Nysa, above Egypt, in Ethiopia; and as to Pan, they do not
even profess to know what happened to him after his birth. To me,
therefore, it is quite manifest that the names of these gods became
known to the Greeks after those of their other deities, and that they
count their birth from the time when they first acquired a knowledge
of them. Thus far my narrative rests on the accounts given by the
Egyptians.
In what follows I have the authority, not of the Egyptians only, but
of others also who agree with them. I shall speak likewise in part
from my own observation. When the Egyptians regained their liberty
after the reign of the priest of Vulcan, unable to continue any while
without a king, they divided Egypt into twelve districts, and set
twelve kings over them. These twelve kings, united together by intermarriages,
ruled Egypt in peace, having entered into engagements with one another
not to depose any of their number, nor to aim at any aggrandisement
of one above the rest, but to dwell together in perfect amity. Now
the reason why they made these stipulations, and guarded with care
against their infraction, was because at the very first establishment
of the twelve kingdoms an oracle had declared- "That he among them
who should pour in Vulcan's temple a libation from a cup of bronze
would become monarch of the whole land of Egypt." Now the twelve held
their meetings at all the temples.
To bind themselves yet more closely together, it seemed good to them
to leave a common monument. In pursuance of this resolution they made
the Labyrinth which lies a little above Lake Moeris, in the neighbourhood
of the place called the city of Crocodiles. I visited this place,
and found it to surpass description; for if all the walls and other
great works of the Greeks could be put together in one, they would
not equal, either for labour or expense, this Labyrinth; and yet the
temple of Ephesus is a building worthy of note, and so is the temple
of Samos. The pyramids likewise surpass description, and are severally
equal to a number of the greatest works of the Greeks, but the Labyrinth
surpasses the pyramids. It has twelve courts, all of them roofed,
with gates exactly opposite one another, six looking to the north,
and six to the south. A single wall surrounds the entire building.
There are two different sorts of chambers throughout- half under ground,
half above ground, the latter built upon the former; the whole number
of these chambers is three thousand, fifteen hundred of each kind.
The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and what I say
concerning them is from my own observation; of the underground chambers
I can only speak from report: for the keepers of the building could
not be got to show them, since they contained (as they said) the sepulchres
of the kings who built the Labyrinth, and also those of the sacred
crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of the lower
chambers. The upper chambers, however, I saw with my own eyes, and
found them to excel all other human productions; for the passages
through the houses, and the varied windings of the paths across the
courts excited in me infinite admiration as I passed from the courts
into chambers, and from the chambers into colonnades, and from the
colonnades into fresh houses, and again from these into courts unseen
before. The roof was throughout of stone, like the walls; and the
walls were carved all over with figures; every court was surrounded
with a colonnade which was built of white stones exquisitely fitted
together. At the corner of the Labyrinth stands a pyramid, forty fathoms
high, with large figures engraved on it, which is entered by a subterranean
passage.
Wonderful as is the Labyrinth, the work called the Lake of Moeris,
which is close by the Labyrinth, is yet more astonishing. The measure
of its circumference is sixty schoenes, or three thousand six hundred
furlongs, which is equal to the entire length of Egypt along the sea-coast.
The lake stretches in its longest direction from north to south, and
in its deepest parts is of the depth of fifty fathoms. It is manifestly
an artificial excavation, for nearly in the centre there stand two
pyramids, rising to the height of fifty fathoms above the surface
of the water, and extending as far beneath, crowned each of them with
a colossal statue sitting upon a throne. Thus these pyramids are one
hundred fathoms high, which is exactly a furlong (stadium) of six
hundred feet: the fathom being six feet in length, or four cubits,
which is the same thing, since a cubit measures six, and a foot four,
palms. The water of the lake does not come out of the ground, which
is here excessively dry, but is introduced by a canal from the Nile.
The current sets for six months into the lake from the river, and
for the next six months into the river from the lake. it runs outward
it returns a talent of silver daily to the royal treasury from the
fish that are taken, but when the current is the other way the return
sinks to one-third of that sum.
The natives told me that there was a subterranean passage from this
lake to the Libyan Syrtis, running westward into the interior by the
hills above Memphis. As I could not anywhere see the earth which had
been taken out when the excavation was made, and I was curious to
know what had become of it, I asked the Egyptians who live closest
to the lake where the earth had been put. The answer that they gave
me I readily accepted as true, since I had heard of the same thing
being done at Nineveh of the Assyrians. There, once upon a time, certain
thieves, having formed a plan to get into their possession the vast
treasures of Sardanapalus, the Ninevite king, which were laid up in
subterranean treasuries, proceeded to tunnel a passage from the house
where they lived into the royal palace, calculating the distance and
the direction. At nightfall they took the earth from the excavation
and carried it to the river Tigris, which ran by Nineveh, continuing
to get rid of it in this manner until they had accomplished their
purpose. It was exactly in the same way that the Egyptians disposed
of the mould from their excavation, except that they did it by day
and not by night; for as fast as the earth was dug, they carried it
to the Nile, which they knew would disperse it far and wide. Such
was the account which I received of the formation of this lake.
The twelve kings for some time dealt honourably by one another, but
at length it happened that on a certain occasion, when they had met
to worship in the temple of Vulcan, the high-priest on the last day
of the festival, in bringing forth the golden goblets from which they
were wont to pour the libations, mistook the number and brought eleven
goblets only for the twelve princes. Psammetichus was standing last,
and, being left without a cup, he took his helmet, which was of bronze,
from off his head, stretched it out to receive the liquor, and so
made his libation. All the kings were accustomed to wear helmets,
and all indeed wore them at this very time. Nor was there any crafty
design in the action of Psammetichus. The eleven, however, when they
came to consider what had been done, and bethought them of the oracle
which had declared "that he who, of the twelve, should pour a libation
from a cup of bronze, the same would be king of the whole land of
Egypt," doubted at first if they should not put Psammetichus to death.
Finding, however, upon examination, that he had acted in the matter
without any guilty intent, they did not think it would be just to
kill him; but determined, instead, to strip him of the chief part
of his power and to banish him to the marshes, forbidding him to leave
them or to hold any communication with the rest of Egypt.
This was the second time that Psammetichus had been driven into banishment.
On a former occasion he had fled from Sabacos the Ethiopian, who had
put his father Necos to death; and had taken refuge in Syria from
whence, after the retirement of the Ethiop in consequence of his dream,
he was brought back by the Egyptians of the Saitic canton. Now it
was his ill-fortune to be banished a second time by the eleven kings,
on account of the libation which he had poured from his helmet; on
this occasion he fled to the marshes. Feeling that he was an injured
man, and designing to avenge himself upon his persecutors, Psammetichus
sent to the city of Buto, where there is an oracle of Latona, the
most veracious of all the oracles of the Egyptians, and having inquired
concerning means of vengeance, received for answer that "Vengeance
would come from the sea, when brazen men should appear." Great was
his incredulity when this answer arrived, for never, he thought, would
brazen men arrive to be his helpers. However, not long afterwards
certain Carians and Ionians who had left their country on a voyage
of plunder, were carried by stress of weather to Egypt where they
disembarked, all equipped in their brazen armour, and were seen by
the natives, one of whom carried the tidings to Psammetichus, and,
as he had never before seen men clad in brass, he reported that brazen
men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. Psammetichus,
perceiving at once that the oracle was accomplished, made friendly
advances to the strangers, and engaged them, by splendid promises,
to enter into his service. He then, with their aid and that of the
Egyptians who espoused his cause, attacked the eleven and vanquished
them.
When Psammetichus had thus become sole monarch of Egypt, he built
the southern gateway of the temple of Vulcan in Memphis, and also
a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept whenever he makes his appearance
in Egypt. This court is opposite the gateway of Psammetichus, and
is surrounded with a colonnade and adorned with a multitude of figures.
Instead of pillars, the colonnade rests upon colossal statues, twelve
cubits in height. The Greek name for Apis is Epaphus.
To the Ionians and Carians who had lent him their assistance Psammetichus
assigned as abodes two places opposite to each other, one on either
side of the Nile, which received the name of "the Camps." He also
made good all the splendid promises by which he had gained their support;
and further, he intrusted to their care certain Egyptian children
whom they were to teach the language of the Greeks. These children,
thus instructed, became the parents of the entire class of interpreters
in Egypt. The Ionians and Carians occupied for many years the places
assigned them by Psammetichus, which lay near the sea, a little below
the city of Bubastis, on the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. King Amasis
long afterwards removed the Greeks hence, and settled them at Memphis
to guard him against the native Egyptians. From the date of the original
settlement of these persons in Egypt, we Greeks, through our intercourse
with them, have acquired an accurate knowledge of the several events
in Egyptian history, from the reign of Psammetichus downwards; but
before his time no foreigners had ever taken up their residence in
that land. The docks where their vessels were laid up and the ruins
of their habitations were still to be seen in my day at the place
where they dwelt originally, before they were removed by Amasis. Such
was the mode by which Psammetichus became master of Egypt.
I have already made mention more than once of the Egyptian oracle,
and, as it well deserves notice, I shall now proceed to give an account
of it more at length. It is a temple of Latona, situated in the midst
of a great city on the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile, at some distance
up the river from the sea. The name of the city, as I have before
observed, is Buto; and in it are two other temples also, one of Apollo
and one of Diana. Latona's temple, which contains the oracle, is a
spacious building with a gateway ten fathoms in height. The most wonderful
thing that was actually to be seen about this temple was a chapel
in the enclosure made of a single stone, the length and height of
which were the same, each wall being forty cubits square, and the
whole a single block! Another block of stone formed the roof and projected
at the eaves to the extent of four cubits.
This, as I have said, was what astonished me the most, of all the
things that were actually to be seen about the temple. The next greatest
marvel was the island called Chemmis. This island lies in the middle
of a broad and deep lake close by the temple, and the natives declare
that it floats. For my own part I did not see it float, or even move;
and I wondered greatly, when they told me concerning it, whether there
be really such a thing as a floating island. It has a grand temple
of Apollo built upon it, in which are three distinct altars. Palm
trees grow on it in great abundance, and many other trees, some of
which bear fruit, while others are barren. The Egyptians tell the
following story in connection with this island, to explain the way
in which it first came to float:- "In former times, when the isle
was still fixed and motionless, Latona, one of the eight gods of the
first order, who dwelt in the city of Buto, where now she has her
oracle, received Apollo as a sacred charge from Isis, and saved him
by hiding him in what is now called the floating island. Typhon meanwhile
was searching everywhere in hopes of finding the child of Osiris."
(According to the Egyptians, Apollo and Diana are the children of
Bacchus and Isis, while Latona is their nurse and their preserver.
They call Apollo, in their language, Horus; Ceres they call Isis;
Diana, Bubastis. From this Egyptian tradition, and from no other,
it must have been that Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion, took the idea,
which is found in none of the earlier poets, of making Diana the daughter
of Ceres.) The island, therefore, in consequence of this event, was
first made to float. Such at least is the account which the Egyptians
give.
Psammetichus ruled Egypt for fifty-four years, during twenty-nine
of which he pressed the siege of Azotus without intermission, till
finally he took the place. Azotus is a great town in Syria. Of all
the cities that we know, none ever stood so long a siege.
Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne.
This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal
to the Red Sea- a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian-
the length of which is four days' journey, and the width such as to
admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived
from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis,
near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins
the Red Sea. At first it is carried along the Arabian side of the
Egyptian plain, as far as the chain of hills opposite Memphis, whereby
the plain is bounded, and in which lie the great stone quarries; here
it skirts the base of the hills running in a direction from west to
east, after which it turns and enters a narrow pass, trending southwards
from this point until it enters the Arabian Gulf. From the northern
sea to that which is called the southern or Erythraean, the shortest
and quickest passage, which is from Mount Casius, the boundary between
Egypt and Syria, to the Gulf of Arabia, is a distance of exactly one
thousand furlongs. But the way by the canal is very much longer on
account of the crookedness of its course. A hundred and twenty thousand
of the Egyptians, employed upon the work in the reign of Necos, lost
their lives in making the excavation. He at length desisted from his
undertaking, in consequence of an oracle which warned him "that he
was labouring for the barbarian." The Egyptians call by the name of
barbarians all such as speak a language different from their own.
Necos, when he gave up the construction of the canal, turned all his
thoughts to war, and set to work to build a fleet of triremes, some
intended for service in the northern sea, and some for the navigation
of the Erythraean. These last were built in the Arabian Gulf where
the dry docks in which they lay are still visible. These fleets he
employed wherever he had occasion, while he also made war by land
upon the Syrians and defeated them in a pitched battle at Magdolus,
after which he made himself master of Cadytis, a large city of Syria.
The dress which he wore on these occasions he sent to Branchidae in
Milesia, as an offering to Apollo. After having reigned in all sixteen
years, Necos died, and at his death bequeathed the throne to his son
Psammis.
In the reign of Psammis, ambassadors from Elis arrived in Egypt, boasting
that their arrangements for the conduct of the Olympic Games were
the best and fairest that could be devised, and fancying that not
even the Egyptians, who surpassed all other nations in wisdom, could
add anything to their perfection. When these persons reached Egypt,
and explained the reason of their visit, the king summoned an assembly
of all the wisest of the Egyptians. They met, and the Eleans having
given them a full account of all their rules and regulations with
respect to the contests said that they had come to Egypt for the express
purpose of learning whether the Egyptians could improve the fairness
of their regulations in any particular. The Egyptians considered awhile
and then made inquiry, "If they allowed their own citizens to enter
the lists?" The Eleans answered, "That the lists were open to all
Greeks, whether they belonged to Elis or to any other state." Hereupon
the Egyptians observed, "That if this were so, they departed from
justice very widely, since it was impossible but that they would favour
their own countrymen and deal unfairly by foreigners. If therefore
they really wished to manage the games with fairness, and if this
was the object of their coming to Egypt, they advised them to confine
the contests to strangers, and allow no native of Elis to be a candidate."
Such was the advice which the Egyptians gave to the Eleans.
Psammis reigned only six years. He attacked Ethiopia, and died almost
directly afterwards. Apries, his son, succeeded him upon the throne,
who, excepting Psammetichus, his great-grandfather, was the most prosperous
of all the kings that ever ruled over Egypt. The length of his reign
was twenty-five years, and in the course of it he marched an army
to attack Sidon, and fought a battle with the king of Tyre by sea.
When at length the time came that was fated to bring him woe, an occasion
arose which I shall describe more fully in my Libyan history, only
touching it very briefly here. An army despatched by Apries to attack
Cyrene, having met with a terrible reverse, the Egyptians laid the
blame on him, imagining that he had, of malice prepense, sent the
troops into the jaws of destruction. They believed he had wished a
vast number of them to be slain in order that he himself might reign
with more security over the rest of the Egyptians. Indignant therefore
at this usage, the soldiers who returned and the friends of the slain
broke instantly into revolt.
Apries, on learning these circumstances, sent Amasis to the rebels
to appease the tumult by persuasion. Upon his arrival, as he was seek.
ing to restrain the malcontents by his exhortations, one of them,
coming behind him, put a helmet on his head, saying, as he put it
on, that he thereby crowned him king. Amasis was not altogether displeased
at the action, as his conduct soon made manifest; for no sooner had
the insurgents agreed to make him actually their king than he prepared
to march with them against Apries. That monarch, on tidings of these
events reaching him, sent Patarbemis, one of his courtiers, a man
of high rank, to Amasis with orders to bring him alive into his presence.
Patarbemis, on arriving at the place where Amasis was, called on him
to come back with him to the king, whereupon Amasis broke a coarse
jest, and said, "Prythee take that back to thy master." When the envoy,
notwithstanding this reply, persisted in his request, exhorting Amasis
to obey the summons of the king, he made answer "that this was exactly
what he had long been intending to do; Apries would have no reason
to complain of him on the score of delay; he would shortly come himself
to the king, and bring others with him." Patarbemis, upon this, comprehending
the intention of Amasis, partly from his replies and partly from the
preparations which he saw in progress, departed hastily, wishing to
inform the king with all speed of what was going on. Apries, however,
when he saw him approaching without Amasis, fell into a paroxysm of
rage, and not giving himself time for reflection, commanded the nose
and ears of Patarbemis to be cut off. Then the rest of the Egyptians,
who had hitherto espoused the cause of Apries, when they saw a man
of such note among them so shamefully outraged, without a moment's
hesitation went over to the rebels, and put themselves at the disposal
of Amasis.
Apries, informed of this new calamity, armed his mercenaries, and
led them against the Egyptians: this was a body of Carians and Ionians,
numbering thirty thousand men, which was now with him at Says, where
his palace stood- a vast building, well worthy of notice. The army
of Apries marched out to attack the host of the Egyptians, while that
of Amasis went forth to fight the strangers; and now both armies drew
near the city of Momemphis and prepared for the coming fight.
The Egyptians are divided into seven distinct classes- these are,
the priests, the warriors, the cowherds, the swineherds, the tradesmen,
the interpreters, and the boatmen. Their titles indicate their occupations.
The warriors consist of Hermotybians and Calascirians, who come from
different cantons, the whole of Egypt being parcelled out into districts
bearing this name.
The following cantons furnish the Hermotybians:- The cantons of Busiris,
Sais, Chemmis, Papremis, that of the island called Prosopitis, and
half of Natho. They number, when most numerous, a hundred and sixty
thousand. None of them ever practices a trade, but all are given wholly
to war.
The cantons of the Calascirians are different- they include the following:-
The cantons of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebennytus,
Athribis, Pharbaethus, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anysis, and Myecphoris- this
last canton consists of an island which lies over against the town
of Bubastis. The Calascirians, when at their greatest number, have
amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand. Like the Hermotybians,
they are forbidden to pursue any trade, and devote themselves entirely
to warlike exercises, the son following the father's calling.
Whether the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians their notions about
trade, like so many others, I cannot say for certain. I have remarked
that the Thracians, the Scyths, the Persians, the Lydians, and almost
all other barbarians, hold the citizens who practice trades, and their
children, in less repute than the rest, while they esteem as noble
those who keep aloof from handicrafts, and especially honour such
as are given wholly to war. These ideas prevail throughout the whole
of Greece, particularly among the Lacedaemonians. Corinth is the place
where mechanics are least despised.
The warrior class in Egypt had certain special privileges in which
none of the rest of the Egyptians participated, except the priests.
In the first place each man had twelve arurae of land assigned him
free from tax. (The arura is a square of a hundred Egyptian cubits,
the Egyptian cubit being of the same length as the Samian.) All the
warriors enjoyed this privilege together, but there were other advantages
which came to each in rotation, the same man never obtaining them
twice. A thousand Calascirians, and the same number of Hermotybians,
formed in alternate years the body-guard of the king; and during their
year of service these persons, besides their arurae, received a daily
portion of meat and drink, consisting of five pounds of baked bread,
two pounds of beef, and four cups of wine.
When Apries, at the head of his mercenaries, and Amasis, in command
of the whole native force of the Egyptians, encountered one another
near the city of Momemphis, an engagement presently took place. The
foreign troops fought bravely, but were overpowered by numbers, in
which they fell very far short of their adversaries. It is said that
Apries believed that there was not a god who could cast him down from
his eminence, so firmly did he think that he had established himself
in his kingdom. But at this time the battle went against him, and
his army being worsted, he fell into the enemy's hands and was brought
back a prisoner to Sais, where he was lodged in what had been his
own house, but was now the palace of Amasis. Amasis treated him with
kindness, and kept him in the palace for a while; but finding his
conduct blamed by the Egyptians, who charged him with acting unjustly
in preserving a man who had shown himself so bitter an enemy both
to them and him, he gave Apries over into the hands of his former
subjects, to deal with as they chose. Then the Egyptians took him
and strangled him, but having so done they buried him in the sepulchre
of his fathers. This tomb is in the temple of Minerva, very near the
sanctuary, on the left hand as one enters. The Saites buried all the
kings who belonged to their canton inside this temple; and thus it
even contains the tomb of Amasis, as well as that of Apries and his
family. The latter is not so close to the sanctuary as the former,
but still it is within the temple. It stands in the court, and is
a spacious cloister built of stone and adorned with pillars carved
so as to resemble palm trees, and with other sumptuous ornaments.
Within the cloister is a chamber with folding doors, behind which
lies the sepulchre of the king.
Here too, in this same precinct of Minerva at Sais, is the burial-place
of one whom I think it not right to mention in such a connection.
It stands behind the temple, against the backwall, which it entirely
covers. There are also some large stone obelisks in the enclosure,
and there is a lake near them, adorned with an edging of stone. In
form it is circular, and in size, as it seemed to me, about equal
to the lake in Delos called "the Hoop."
On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings
whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they
call their Mysteries. I know well the whole course of the proceedings
in these ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with
regard to the mysteries of Ceres, which the Greeks term "the Thesmophoria,"
I know them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be
done without impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites
from Egypt, and taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese.
Afterwards, when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from
their homes by the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where
the natives remained and were not compelled to migrate, their observance
continued.
After Apries had been put to death in the way that I have described
above, Amasis reigned over Egypt. He belonged to the canton of Sais,
being a native of the town called Siouph. At first his subjects looked
down on him and held him in small esteem, because he had been a mere
private person, and of a house of no great distinction; but after
a time Amasis succeeded in reconciling them to his rule, not by severity,
but by cleverness. Among his other splendour he had a golden foot-pan,
in which his guests and himself were wont upon occasion to wash their
feet. This vessel he caused to be broken in pieces, and made of the
gold an image of one of the gods, which he set up in the most public
place in the whole city; upon which the Egyptians flocked to the image,
and worshipped it with the utmost reverence. Amasis, finding this
was so, called an assembly, and opened the matter to them, explaining
how the image had been made of the foot-pan, wherein they had been
wont formerly to wash their feet and to put all manner of filth, yet
now it was greatly reverenced. "And truly," he went on to say, "it
had gone with him as with the foot-pan. If he was a private person
formerly, yet now he had come to be their king. And so he bade them
honour and reverence him." Such was the mode in which he won over
the Egyptians, and brought them to be content to do him service.
The following was the general habit of his life:- from early dawn
to the time when the forum is wont to fill, he sedulously transacted
all the business that was brought before him; during the remainder
of the day he drank and joked with his guests, passing the time in
witty and, sometimes, scarce seemly conversation. It grieved his friends
that he should thus demean himself, and accordingly some of them chid
him on the subject, saying to him- "Oh! king, thou dost but ill guard
thy royal dignity whilst thou allowest thyself in such levities. Thou
shouldest sit in state upon a stately throne, and busy thyself with
affairs the whole day long. So would the Egyptians feel that a great
man rules them, and thou wouldst be better spoken of. But now thou
conductest thyself in no kingly fashion." Amasis answered them thus:-
"Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot; unbrace them when
the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break,
and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give
themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in
pastime or sport, they lose their senses, and become mad or moody.
Knowing this, I divide my life between pastime and business." Thus
he answered his friends.
It is said that Amasis, even while he was a private man, had the same
tastes for drinking and jesting, and was averse to engaging in any
serious employment. He lived in constant feasts and revelries, and
whenever his means failed him, he roamed about and robbed people.
On such occasions the persons from whom he had stolen would bring
him, if he denied the charge, before the nearest oracle; sometimes
the oracle would pronounce him guilty of the theft, at other times
it would acquit him. When afterwards he came to be king, he neglected
the temples of such gods as had declared that he was not a thief,
and neither contributed to their adornment nor frequented them for
sacrifice, since he regarded them as utterly worthless and their oracles
as wholly false: but the gods who had detected his guilt he considered
to be true gods whose oracles did not deceive, and these he honoured
exceedingly.
First of all, therefore, he built the gateway of the temple of Minerva
at Sais, which is an astonishing work, far surpassing all other buildings
of the same kind both in extent and height, and built with stones
of rare size and excellency. In the next place, he presented to the
temple a number of large colossal statues and several prodigious andro-sphinxes,
besides certain stones for the repairs, of a most extraordinary size.
Some of these he got from the quarries over against Memphis, but the
largest were brought from Elephantine, which is twenty days' voyage
from Sais. Of all these wonderful masses that which I most admire
is a chamber made of a single stone, which was quarried at Elephantine.
It took three years to convey this block from the quarry to Sais;
and in the conveyance were employed no fewer than two thousand labourers,
who were all from the class of boatmen. The length of this chamber
on the outside is twenty-one cubits, its breadth fourteen cubits,
and its height, eight. The measurements inside are the following:-
the length, eighteen cubits and five-sixths; the breadth, twelve cubits;
and the height, five. It lies near the entrance of the temple, where
it was left in consequence of the following circumstance:- it happened
that the architect, just as the stone had reached the spot where it
now stands, heaved a sigh, considering the length of time that the
removal had taken, and feeling wearied with the heavy toil. The sigh
was heard by Amasis who, regarding it as an omen, would not allow
the chamber to be moved forward any farther. Some, however, say that
one of the workmen engaged at the levers was crushed and killed by
the mass, and that this was the reason of its being left where it
now stands.
To the other temples of much note Amasis also made magnificent offerings-
at Memphis, for instance, he gave the recumbent colossus in front
of the temple of Vulcan, which is seventy-five feet long. Two other
colossal statues stand on the same base, each twenty feet high, carved
in the stone of Ethiopia, one on either side of the temple. There
is also a stone colossus of the same size at Says, recumbent like
that at Memphis. Amasis finally built the temple of Isis at Memphis,
a vast structure, well worth seeing.
It is said that the reign of Amasis was the most prosperous time that
Egypt ever saw,- the river was more liberal to the land, and the land
brought forth more abundantly for the service of man than had ever
been known before; while the number of inhabited cities was not less
than twenty thousand. It was this king Amasis who established the
law that every Egyptian should appear once a year before the governor
of his canton, and show his means of living; or, failing to do so,
and to prove that he got an honest livelihood, should be put to death.
Solon the Athenian borrowed this law from the Egyptians, and imposed
it on his countrymen, who have observed it ever since. It is indeed
an excellent custom.
Amasis was partial to the Greeks, and among other favours which he
granted them, gave to such as liked to settle in Egypt the city of
Naucratis for their residence. To those who only wished to trade upon
the coast, and did not want to fix their abode in the country, he
granted certain lands where they might set up altars and erect temples
to the gods. Of these temples the grandest and most famous, which
is also the most frequented, is that called "the Hellenium." It was
built conjointly by the Ionians, Dorians, and Aeolians, the following
cities taking part in the work:- the Ionian states of Chios, Teos,
Phocaea, and Clazomenae; Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis
of the Dorians; and Mytilene of the Aeolians. These are the states
to whom the temple belongs, and they have the right of appointing
the governors of the factory; the other cities which claim a share
in the building, claim what in no sense belongs to them. Three nations,
however, consecrated for themselves separate temples- the Eginetans
one to Jupiter, the Samians to Juno, and the Milesians to Apollo.
In ancient times there was no factory but Naucratis in the whole of
Egypt; and if a person entered one of the other mouths of the Nile,
he was obliged to swear that he had not come there of his own free
will. Having so done, he was bound to sail in his ship to the Canobic
mouth, or were that impossible owing to contrary winds, he must take
his wares by boat all round the Delta, and so bring them to Naucratis,
which had an exclusive privilege.
It happened in the reign of Amasis that the temple of Delphi had been
accidentally burnt, and the Amphictyons had contracted to have it
rebuilt for three hundred talents, of which sum one-fourth was to
be furnished by the Delphians. Under these circumstances the Delphians
went from city to city begging contributions, and among their other
wanderings came to Egypt and asked for help. From few other places
did they obtain so much- Amasis gave them a thousand talents of alum,
and the Greek settlers twenty minae.
A league was concluded by Amasis with the Cyrenaeans, by which Cyrene
and Egypt became close friends and allies. He likewise took a wife
from that city, either as a sign of his friendly feeling, or because
he had a fancy to marry a Greek woman. However this may be, certain
it is that he espoused a lady of Cyrene, by name Ladice, daughter,
some say, of Battus or Arcesilaus, the king- others, of Critobulus,
one of the chief citizens. When the time came to complete the contract,
Amasis was struck with weakness. Astonished hereat- for he was not
wont to be so afflicted- the king thus addressed his bride: "Woman,
thou hast certainly bewitched me- now therefore be sure thou shalt
perish more miserably than ever woman perished yet." Ladice protested
her innocence, but in vain; Amasis was not softened. Hereupon she
made a vow internally, that if he recovered within the day (for no
longer time was allowed her), she would present a statue to the temple
of Venus at Cyrene. Immediately she obtained her wish, and the king's
weakness disappeared. Amasis loved her greatly ever after, and Ladice
performed her vow. The statue which she caused to be made, and sent
to Cyrene continued there to my day, standing with its face looking
outwards from the city. Ladice herself, when Cambyses conquered Egypt,
suffered no wrong; for Cambyses, on learning of her who she was, sent
her back unharmed to her country.
Besides the marks of favour already mentioned, Amasis also enriched
with offerings many of the Greek temples. He sent to Cyrene a statue
of Minerva covered with plates of gold, and a painted likeness of
himself. To the Minerva of Lindus he gave two statues in stone, and
a linen corslet well worth inspection. To the Samian Juno he presented
two statues of himself, made in wood, which stood in the great temple
to my day, behind the doors. Samos was honoured with these gifts on
account of the bond of friendship subsisting between Amasis and Polycrates,
the son of Aeaces: Lindus, for no such reason, but because of the
tradition that the daughters of Danaus touched there in their flight
from the sons of Aegyptus, and built the temple of Minerva. Such were
the offerings of Amasis. He likewise took Cyprus, which no man had
ever done before, and compelled it to pay him a tribute.
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BOOK III
Thalia
The above-mentioned Amasis was the Egyptian king against whom Cambyses,
son of Cyrus, made his expedition; and with him went an army composed
of the many nations under his rule, among them being included both
Ionic and Aeolic Greeks. The reason of the invasion was the following.
Cambyses, by the advice of a certain Egyptian, who was angry with
Amasis for having torn him from his wife and children and given him
over to the Persians, had sent a herald to Amasis to ask his daughter
in marriage. His adviser was a physician, whom Amasis, when Cyrus
had requested that he would send him the most skilful of all the Egyptian
eye-doctors, singled out as the best from the whole number. Therefore
the Egyptian bore Amasis a grudge, and his reason for urging Cambyses
to ask the hand of the king's daughter was, that if he complied, it
might cause him annoyance; if he refused, it might make Cambyses his
enemy. When the message came, Amasis, who much dreaded the power of
the Persians, was greatly perplexed whether to give his daughter or
no; for that Cambyses did not intend to make her his wife, but would
only receive her as his concubine, he knew for certain. He therefore
cast the matter in his mind, and finally resolved what he would do.
There was a daughter of the late king Apries, named Nitetis, a tall
and beautiful woman, the last survivor of that royal house. Amasis
took this woman, and decking her out with gold and costly garments,
sent her to Persia as if she had been his own child. Some time afterwards,
Cambyses, as he gave her an embrace, happened to call her by her father's
name, whereupon she said to him, "I see, O king, thou knowest not
how thou has been cheated by Amasis; who took me, and, tricking me
out with gauds, sent me to thee as his own daughter. But I am in truth
the child of Apries, who was his lord and master, until he rebelled
against him, together with the rest of the Egyptians, and put him
to death." It was this speech, and the cause of quarrel it disclosed,
which roused the anger of Cambyses, son of Cyrus, and brought his
arms upon Egypt. Such is the Persian story.
The Egyptians, however, claim Cambyses as belonging to them, declaring
that he was the son of this Nitetis. It was Cyrus, they say, and not
Cambyses, who sent to Amasis for his daughter. But here they mis-state
the truth. Acquainted as they are beyond all other men with the laws
and customs of the Persians, they cannot but be well aware, first,
that it is not the Persian wont to allow a bastard to reign when there
is a legitimate heir; and next, that Cambyses was the son of Cassandane,
the daughter of Pharnaspes, an Achaemenian, and not of this Egyptian.
But the fact is that they pervert history in order to claim relationship
with the house of Cyrus. Such is the truth of this matter.
I have also heard another account, which I do not at all believe:
that a Persian lady came to visit the wives of Cyrus, and seeing how
tall and beautiful were the children of Cassandane, then standing
by, broke out into loud praise of them, and admired them exceedingly.
But Cassandane, wife of Cyrus, answered, "Though such the children
I have borne him, yet Cyrus slights me and gives all his regard to
the new-comer from Egypt." Thus did she express her vexation on account
of Nitetis: whereupon Cambyses, the eldest of her boys, exclaimed,
"Mother, when I am a man, I will turn Egypt upside down for you."
He was but ten years old, as the tale runs, when he said this, and
astonished all the women, yet he never forgot it afterwards; and on
this account, they say, when he came to be a man, and mounted the
throne, he made his expedition against Egypt.
There was another matter, quite distinct, which helped to bring about
the expedition. One of the mercenaries of Amasis, a Halicarnassian,
Phanes by name, a man of good judgment, and a brave warrior, dissatisfied
for some reason or other with his master, deserted the service, and
taking ship, fled to Cambyses, wishing to get speech with him. As
he was a person of no small account among the mercenaries, and one
who could give very exact intelligence about Egypt, Amasis, anxious
to recover him, ordered that he should be pursued. He gave the matter
in charge to one of the most trusty of the eunuchs, who went in quest
of the Halicarnassian in a vessel of war. The eunuch caught him in
Lycia, but did not contrive to bring him back to Egypt, for Phanes
outwitted him by making his guards drunk, and then escaping into Persia.
Now it happened that Cambyses was meditating his attack on Egypt,
and doubting how he might best pass the desert, when Phanes arrived,
and not only told him all the secrets of Amasis, but advised him also
how the desert might be crossed. He counselled him to send an ambassador
to the king of the Arabs, and ask him for safe-conduct through the
region.
Now the only entrance into Egypt is by this desert: the country from
Phoenicia to the borders of the city Cadytis belongs to the people
called the Palaestine Syrians; from Cadytis, which it appears to me
is a city almost as large as Sardis, the marts upon the coast till
you reach Jenysus are the Arabian king's; after Jenysus the Syrians
again come in, and extend to Lake Serbonis, near the place where Mount
Casius juts out into the sea. At Lake Serbonis, where the tale goes
that Typhon hid himself, Egypt begins. Now the whole tract between
Jenysus on the one side, and Lake Serbonis and Mount Casius on the
other, and this is no small space, being as much as three days' journey,
is a dry desert without a drop of water.
I shall now mention a thing of which few of those who sail to Egypt
are aware. Twice a year wine is brought into Egypt from every part
of Greece, as well as from Phoenicia, in earthen jars; and yet in
the whole country you will nowhere see, as I may say, a single jar.
What then, every one will ask, becomes of the jars? This, too, I will
clear up. The burgomaster of each town has to collect the wine-jars
within his district, and to carry them to Memphis, where they are
all filled with water by the Memphians, who then convey them to this
desert tract of Syria. And so it comes to pass that all the jars which
enter Egypt year by year, and are there put up to sale, find their
way into Syria, whither all the old jars have gone before them.
This way of keeping the passage into Egypt fit for use by storing
water there, was begun by the Persians so soon as they became masters
of that country. As, however, at the time of which we speak the tract
had not yet been so supplied, Cambyses took the advice of his Halicarnassian
guest, and sent messengers to the Arabian to beg a safe-conduct through
the region. The Arabian granted his prayer, and each pledged faith
to the other.
The Arabs keep such pledges more religiously than almost any other
people. They plight faith with the forms following. When two men would
swear a friendship, they stand on each side of a third: he with a
sharp stone makes a cut on the inside of the hand of each near the
middle finger, and, taking a piece from their dress, dips it in the
blood of each, and moistens therewith seven stones lying in the midst,
calling the while on Bacchus and Urania. After this, the man who makes
the pledge commends the stranger (or the citizen, if citizen he be)
to all his friends, and they deem themselves bound to stand to the
engagement. They have but these two gods, to wit, Bacchus and Urania;
and they say that in their mode of cutting the hair, they follow Bacchus.
Now their practice is to cut it in a ring, away from the temples.
Bacchus they call in their language Orotal, and Urania, Alilat.
When therefore the Arabian had pledged his faith to the messengers
of Cambyses, he straightway contrived as follows:- he filled a number
of camels' skins with water, and loading therewith all the live camels
that he possessed, drove them into the desert, and awaited the coming
of the army. This is the more likely of the two tales that are told.
The other is an improbable story, but, as it is related, I think that
I ought not to pass it by. There is a great river in Arabia, called
the Corys, which empties itself into the Erythraean sea. The Arabian
king, they say, made a pipe of the skins of oxen and other beasts,
reaching from this river all the way to the desert, and so brought
the water to certain cisterns which he had dug in the desert to receive
it. It is a twelve days' journey from the river to this desert tract.
And the water, they say, was brought through three different pipes
to three separate places.
Psammenitus, son of Amasis, lay encamped at the mouth of the. Nile,
called the Pelusiac, awaiting Cambyses. For Cambyses, when he went
up against Egypt, found Amasis no longer in life: he had died after
ruling Egypt forty and four years, during all which time no great
misfortune had befallen him. When he died, his body was embalmed,
and buried in the tomb which he had himself caused to be made in the
temple. After his son Psammenitus had mounted the throne, a strange
prodigy occurred in Egypt- rain fell at Egyptian Thebes, a thing which
never happened before, and which, to the present time, has never happened
again, as the Thebans themselves testify. In Upper Egypt it does not
usually rain at all; but on this occasion, rain fell at Thebes in
small drops.
The Persians crossed the desert, and, pitching their camp close to
the Egyptians, made ready for battle. Hereupon the mercenaries in
the pay of Psammenitus, who were Greeks and Carians, full of anger
against Phanes for having brought a foreign army upon Egypt, bethought
themselves of a mode whereby they might be revenged on him. Phanes
had left sons in Egypt. The mercenaries took these, and leading them
to the camp, displayed them before the eyes of their father; after
which they brought out a bowl, and, placing it in the space between
the two hosts, they led the sons of Phanes, one by one, to the vessel,
and slew them over it. When the last was dead, water and wine were
poured into the bowl, and all the soldiers tasted of the blood, and
so they went to the battle. Stubborn was the fight which followed,
and it was not till vast numbers had been slain upon both sides, that
the Egyptians turned and fled.
On the field where this battle was fought I saw a very wonderful thing
which the natives pointed out to me. The bones of the slain lie scattered
upon the field in two lots, those of the Persians in one place by
themselves, as the bodies lay at the first- those of the Egyptians
in another place apart from them. If, then, you strike the Persian
skulls, even with a pebble, they are so weak, that you break a hole
in them; but the Egyptian skulls are so strong, that you may smite
them with a stone and you will scarcely break them in. They gave me
the following reason for this difference, which seemed to me likely
enough:- The Egyptians (they said) from early childhood have the head
shaved, and so by the action of the sun the skull becomes thick and
hard. The same cause prevents baldness in Egypt, where you see fewer
bald men than in any other land. Such, then, is the reason why the
skulls of the Egyptians are so strong. The Persians, on the other
hand, have feeble skulls, because they keep themselves shaded from
the first, wearing turbans upon their heads. What I have here mentioned
I saw with my own eyes, and I observed also the like at Papremis,
in the case of the Persians who were killed with Achaeamenes, the
son of Darius, by Inarus the Libyan.
The Egyptians who fought in the battle, no sooner turned their backs
upon the enemy, than they fled away in complete disorder to Memphis,
where they shut themselves up within the walls. Hereupon Cambyses
sent a Mytilenaean vessel, with a Persian herald on board, who was
to sail up the Nile to Memphis, and invite the Egyptians to a surrender.
They, however, when they saw the vessel entering the town, poured
forth in crowds from the castle, destroyed the ship, and, tearing
the crew limb from limb, so bore them into the fortress. After this
Memphis was besieged, and in due time surrendered. Hereon the Libyans
who bordered upon Egypt, fearing the fate of that country, gave themselves
up to Cambyses without a battle, made an agreement to pay tribute
to him, and forthwith sent him gifts. The Cyrenaeans too, and the
Barcaeans, having the same fear as the Libyans, immediately did the
like. Cambyses received the Libyan presents very graciously, but not
so the gifts of the Cyrenaeans. They had sent no more than five hundred
minx of silver, which Cambyses, I imagine, thought too little. He
therefore snatched the money from them, and with his own hands scattered
it among his soldiers.
Ten days after the fort had fallen, Cambyses resolved to try the spirit
of Psammenitus, the Egyptian king, whose whole reign had been but
six months. He therefore had him set in one of the suburbs, and many
other Egyptians with him, and there subjected him to insult. First
of all he sent his daughter out from the city, clothed in the garb
of a slave, with a pitcher to draw water. Many virgins, the daughters
of the chief nobles, accompanied her, wearing the same dress. When
the damsels came opposite the place where their fathers sate, shedding
tears and uttering cries of woe, the fathers, all but Psammenitus,
wept and wailed in return, grieving to see their children in so sad
a plight; but he, when he had looked and seen, bent his head towards
the ground. In this way passed by the water-carriers. Next to them
came Psammenitus' son, and two thousand Egyptians of the same age
with him- all of them having ropes round their necks and bridles in
their mouths- and they too passed by on their way to suffer death
for the murder of the Mytilenaeans who were destroyed, with their
vessel, in Memphis. For so had the royal judges given their sentence
for each Mytilenaean ten of the noblest Egyptians must forfeit life."
King Psammenitus saw the train pass on, and knew his son was being
led to death, but while the other Egyptians who sate around him wept
and were sorely troubled, he showed no further sign than when he saw
his daughter. And now, when they too were gone, it chanced that one
of his former boon-companions, a man advanced in years, who had been
stripped of all that he had and was a beggar, came where Psammenitus,
son of Amasis, and the rest of the Egyptians were, asking alms from
the soldiers. At this sight the king burst into tears, and weeping
out aloud, called his friend by his name, and smote himself on the
head. Now there were some who had been set to watch Psammenitus and
see what he would do as each train went by; so these persons went
and told Cambyses of his behaviour. Then he, astonished at what was
done, sent a messenger to Psammenitus, and questioned him, saying,
"Psammenitus, thy lord Cambyses asketh thee why, when thou sawest
thy daughter brought to shame, and thy son on his way to death, thou
didst neither utter cry nor shed tear, while to a beggar, who is,
he hears, a stranger to thy race, thou gavest those marks of honour."
To this question Psammenitus made answer, "O son of Cyrus, my own
misfortunes were too great for tears; but the woe of my friend deserved
them. When a man falls from splendour and plenty into beggary at the
threshold of old age, one may well weep for him." When the messenger
brought back this answer, Cambyses owned it was just; Croesus, likewise,
the Egyptians say, burst into tears- for he too had come into Egypt
with Cambyses- and the Persians who were present wept. Even Cambyses
himself was touched with pity, and he forthwith gave an order that
the son of Psammenitus should be spared from the number of those appointed
to die, and Psammenitus himself brought from the suburb into his presence.
The messengers were too late to save the life of Psammenitus' son,
who had been cut in pieces the first of all; but they took Psammenitus
himself and brought him before the king. Cambyses allowed him to live
with him, and gave him no more harsh treatment; nay, could he have
kept from intermeddling with affairs, he might have recovered Egypt,
and ruled it as governor. For the Persian wont is to treat the sons
of kings with honour, and even to give their fathers' kingdoms to
the children of such as revolt from them. There are many cases from
which one may collect that this is the Persian rule, and especially
those of Pausiris and Thannyras. Thannyras was son of Inarus the Libyan,
and was allowed to succeed his father, as was also Pausiris, son of
Amyrtaeus; yet certainly no two persons ever did the Persians more
damage than Amyrtaeus and Inarus. In this case Psammenitus plotted
evil, and received his reward accordingly. He was discovered to be
stirring up revolt in Egypt, wherefore Cambyses, when his guilt clearly
appeared, compelled him to drink bull's blood, which presently caused
his death. Such was the end of Psammenitus.
After this Cambyses left Memphis, and went to Sais, wishing to do
that which he actually did on his arrival there. He entered the palace
of Amasis, and straightway commanded that the body of the king should
be brought forth from the sepulchre. When the attendants did according
to his commandment, he further bade them scourge the body, and prick
it with goads, and pluck the hair from it, and heap upon it all manner
of insults. The body, however, having been embalmed, resisted, and
refused to come apart, do what they would to it; so the attendants
grew weary of their work; whereupon Cambyses bade them take the corpse
and burn it. This was truly an impious command to give, for the Persians
hold fire to be a god, and never by any chance burn their dead. Indeed
this practice is unlawful, both with them and with the Egyptians-
with them for the reason above mentioned, since they deem it wrong
to give the corpse of a man to a god; and with the Egyptians, because
they believe fire to be a live animal, which eats whatever it can
seize, and then, glutted with the food, dies with the matter which
it feeds upon. Now to give a man's body to be devoured by beasts is
in no wise agreeable to their customs, and indeed this is the very
reason why they embalm their dead; namely, to prevent them from being
eaten in the grave by worms. Thus Cambyses commanded what both nations
accounted unlawful. According to the Egyptians, it was not Amasis
who was thus treated, but another of their nation who was of about
the same height. The Persians, believing this man's body to be the
king's, abused it in the fashion described above. Amasis, they say,
was warned by an oracle of what would happen to him after his death:
in order, therefore, to prevent the impending fate, he buried the
body, which afterwards received the blows, inside his own tomb near
the entrance, commanding his son to bury him, when he died, in the
furthest recess of the same sepulchre. For my own part I do not believe
that these orders were ever given by Amasis; the Egyptians, as it
seems to me, falsely assert it, to save their own dignity.
After this Cambyses took counsel with himself, and planned three expeditions.
One was against the Carthaginians, another against the Ammonians,
and a third against the long-lived Ethiopians, who dwelt in that part
of Libya which borders upon the southern sea. He judged it best to
despatch his fleet against Carthage and to send some portion of his
land army to act against the Ammonians, while his spies went into
Ethiopia, under the pretence of carrying presents to the king, but
in reality to take note of all they saw, and especially to observe
whether there was really what is called "the table of the Sun" in
Ethiopia.
Now the table of the Sun according to the accounts given of it may
be thus described:- It is a meadow in the skirts of their city full
of the boiled flesh of all manner of beasts, which the magistrates
are careful to store with meat every night, and where whoever likes
may come and eat during the day. The people of the land say that the
earth itself brings forth the food. Such is the description which
is given of this table.
When Cambyses had made up his mind that the spies should go, he forthwith
sent to Elephantine for certain of the Icthyophagi who were acquainted
with the Ethiopian tongue; and, while they were being fetched, issued
orders to his fleet to sail against Carthage. But the Phoenicians
said they would not go, since they were bound to the Carthaginians
by solemn oaths, and since besides it would be wicked in them to make
war on their own children. Now when the Phoenicians refused, the rest
of the fleet was unequal to the undertaking; and so it was that the
Carthaginians escaped, and were not enslaved by the Persians. Cambyses
thought it not right to force the war upon the Phoenicians, because
they had yielded themselves to the Persians, and because upon the
Phoenicians all his sea-service depended. The Cyprians had also joined
the Persians of their own accord, and took part with them in the expedition
against Egypt.
As soon as the Icthyophagi arrived from Elephantine, Cambyses, having
told them what they were to say, forthwith despatched them into Ethiopia
with these following gifts: to wit, a purple robe, a gold chain for
the neck, armlets, an alabaster box of myrrh, and a cask of palm wine.
The Ethiopians to whom this embassy was sent are said to be the tallest
and handsomest men in the whole world. In their customs they differ
greatly from the rest of mankind, and particularly in the way they
choose their kings; for they find out the man who is the tallest of
all the citizens, and of strength equal to his height, and appoint
him to rule over them.
The Icthyophagi on reaching this people, delivered the gifts to the
king of the country, and spoke as follows:- "Cambyses, king of the
Persians, anxious to become thy ally and sworn friend, has sent us
to hold converse with thee, and to bear thee the gifts thou seest,
which are the things wherein he himself delights the most." Hereon
the Ethiopian, who knew they came as spies, made answer:- "The king
of the Persians sent you not with these gifts because he much desired
to become my sworn friend- nor is the account which ye give of yourselves
true, for ye are come to search out my kingdom. Also your king is
not a just man- for were he so, he had not coveted a land which is
not his own, nor brought slavery on a people who never did him any
wrong. Bear him this bow, and say- 'The king of the Ethiops thus advises
the king of the Persians when the Persians can pull a bow of this
strength thus easily, then let him come with an army of superior strength
against the long-lived Ethiopians- till then, let him thank the gods
that they have not put it into the heart of the sons of the Ethiops
to covet countries which do not belong to them.'
So speaking, he unstrung the bow, and gave it into the hands of the
messengers. Then, taking the purple robe, he asked them what it was,
and how it had been made. They answered truly, telling him concerning
the purple, and the art of the dyer- whereat he observed "that the
men were deceitful, and their garments also." Next he took the neck-chain
and the armlets, and asked about them. So the Icthyophagi explained
their use as ornaments. Then the king laughed, and fancying they were
fetters, said, "the Ethiopians had much stronger ones." Thirdly, he
inquired about the myrrh, and when they told him how it was made and
rubbed upon the limbs, he said the same as he had said about the robe.
Last of all he came to the wine, and having learnt their way of making
it, he drank a draught, which greatly delighted him; whereupon he
asked what the Persian king was wont to eat, and to what age the longest-lived
of the Persians had been known to attain. They told him that the king
ate bread, and described the nature of wheat- adding that eighty years
was the longest term of man's life among the Persians. Hereat he remarked,
"It did not surprise him, if they fed on dirt, that they died so soon;
indeed he was sure they never would have lived so long as eighty years,
except for the refreshment they got from that drink (meaning the wine),
wherein he confessed the Persians surpassed the Ethiopians."
The Icthyophagi then in their turn questioned the king concerning
the term of life, and diet of his people, and were told that most
of them lived to be a hundred and twenty years old, while some even
went beyond that age- they ate boiled flesh, and had for their drink
nothing but milk. When the Icthyophagi showed wonder at the number
of the years, he led them to a fountain, wherein when they had washed,
they found their flesh all glossy and sleek, as if they had bathed
in oil- and a scent came from the spring like that of violets. The
water was so weak, they said, that nothing would float in it, neither
wood, nor any lighter substance, but all went to the bottom. If the
account of this fountain be true, it would be their constant use of
the water from it which makes them so long-lived. When they quitted
the fountain the king led them to a prison, where the prisoners were
all of them bound with fetters of gold. Among these Ethiopians copper
is of all metals the most scarce and valuable. After they had seen
the prison, they were likewise shown what is called "the table of
the Sun."
Also, last of all, they were allowed to behold the coffins of the
Ethiopians, which are made (according to report) of crystal, after
the following fashion:- When the dead body has been dried, either
in the Egyptian, or in some other manner, they cover the whole with
gypsum, and adorn it with painting until it is as like the living
man as possible. Then they place the body in a crystal pillar which
has been hollowed out to receive it, crystal being dug up in great
abundance in their country, and of a kind very easy to work. You may
see the corpse through the pillar within which it lies; and it neither
gives out any unpleasant odour, nor is it in any respect unseemly;
yet there is no part that is not as plainly visible as if the body
were bare. The next of kin keep the crystal pillar in their houses
for a full year from the time of the death, and give it the first
fruits continually, and honour it with sacrifice. After the year is
out they bear the pillar forth, and set it up near the town.
When the spies had now seen everything, they returned back to Egypt,
and made report to Cambyses, who was stirred to anger by their words.
Forthwith he set out on his march against the Ethiopians without having
made any provision for the sustenance of his army, or reflected that
he was about to wage war in the uttermost parts of the earth. Like
a senseless madman as he was, no sooner did he receive the report
of the Icthyophagi than he began his march, bidding the Greeks who
were with his army remain where they were, and taking only his land
force with him. At Thebes, which he passed through on his way, he
detached from his main body some fifty thousand men, and sent them
against the Ammonians with orders to carry the people into captivity,
and burn the oracle of Jupiter. Meanwhile he himself went on with
the rest of his forces against the Ethiopians. Before, however, he
had accomplished one-fifth part of the distance, all that the army
had in the way of provisions failed; whereupon the men began to eat
the sumpter beasts, which shortly failed also. If then, at this time,
Cambyses, seeing what was happening, had confessed himself in the
wrong, and led his army back, he would have done the wisest thing
that he could after the mistake made at the outset; but as it was,
he took no manner of heed, but continued to march forwards. So long
as the earth gave them anything, the soldiers sustained life by eating
the grass and herbs; but when they came to the bare sand, a portion
of them were guilty of a horrid deed: by tens they cast lots for a
man, who was slain to be the food of the others. When Cambyses heard
of these doings, alarmed at such cannibalism, he gave up his attack
on Ethiopia, and retreating by the way he had come, reached Thebes,
after he had lost vast numbers of his soldiers. From Thebes he marched
down to Memphis, where he dismissed the Greeks, allowing them to sail
home. And so ended the expedition against Ethiopia.
The men sent to attack the Ammonians, started from Thebes, having
guides with them, and may be clearly traced as far as the city Oasis,
which is inhabited by Samians, said to be of the tribe Aeschrionia.
The place is distant from Thebes seven days' journey across the sand,
and is called in our tongue "the Island of the Blessed." Thus far
the army is known to have made its way; but thenceforth nothing is
to be heard of them, except what the Ammonians, and those who get
their knowledge from them, report. It is certain they neither reached
the Ammonians, nor even came back to Egypt. Further than this, the
Ammonians relate as follows:- That the Persians set forth from Oasis
across the sand, and had reached about half way between that place
and themselves when, as they were at their midday meal, a wind arose
from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of
whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them
wholly to disappear. Thus, according to the Ammonians, did it fare
with this army.
About the time when Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis appeared to
the Egyptians. Now Apis is the god whom the Greeks call Epaphus. As
soon as he appeared, straightway all the Egyptians arrayed themselves
in their gayest garments, and fell to feasting and jollity: which
when Cambyses saw, making sure that these rejoicings were on account
of his own ill success, he called before him the officers who had
charge of Memphis, and demanded of them- "Why, when he was in Memphis
before, the Egyptians had done nothing of this kind, but waited until
now, when he had returned with the loss of so many of his troops?"
The officers made answer, "That one of their gods had appeared to
them, a god who at long intervals of time had been accustomed to show
himself in Egypt- and that always on his appearance the whole of Egypt
feasted and kept jubilee." When Cambyses heard this, he told them
that they lied, and as liars he condemned them all to suffer death.
When they were dead, he called the priests to his presence, and questioning
them received the same answer; whereupon he observed, "That he would
soon know whether a tame god had really come to dwell in Egypt"- and
straightway, without another word, he bade them bring Apis to him.
So they went out from his presence to fetch the god. Now this Apis,
or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow which is never afterwards able to
bear young. The Egyptians say that fire comes down from heaven upon
the cow, which thereupon conceives Apis. The calf which is so called
has the following marks:- He is black, with a square spot of white
upon his forehead, and on his back the figure of an eagle; the hairs
in his tail are double, and there is a beetle upon his tongue.
When the priests returned bringing Apis with them, Cambyses, like
the harebrained person that he was, drew his dagger, and aimed at
the belly of the animal, but missed his mark, and stabbed him in the
thigh. Then he laughed, and said thus to the priests:- "Oh! blockheads,
and think ye that gods become like this, of flesh and blood, and sensible
to steel? A fit god indeed for Egyptians, such an one! But it shall
cost you dear that you have made me your laughing-stock." When he
had so spoken, he ordered those whose business it was to scourge the
priests, and if they found any of the Egyptians keeping festival to
put them to death. Thus was the feast stopped throughout the land
of Egypt, and the priests suffered punishment. Apis, wounded in the
thigh, lay some time pining in the temple; at last he died of his
wound, and the priests buried him secretly without the knowledge of
Cambyses.
And now Cambyses, who even before had not been quite in his right
mind, was forthwith, as the Egyptians say, smitten with madness for
this crime. The first of his outrages was the slaying of Smerdis,
his full brother, whom he had sent back to Persia from Egypt out of
envy, because he drew the bow brought from the Ethiopians by the Icthyophagi
(which none of the other Persians were able to bend) the distance
of two fingers' breadth. When Smerdis was departed into Persia, Cambyses
had a vision in his sleep- he thought a messenger from Persia came
to him with tidings that Smerdis sat upon the royal throne and with
his head touched the heavens. Fearing therefore for himself, and thinking
it likely that his brother would kill him and rule in his stead, Cambyses
sent into Persia Prexaspes, whom he trusted beyond all the other Persians,
bidding him put Smerdis to death. So this Prexaspes went up to Susa
and slew Smerdis. Some say he killed him as they hunted together,
others, that he took him down to the Erythraean Sea, and there drowned
him.
This, it is said, was the first outrage which Cambyses committed.
The second was the slaying of his sister, who had accompanied him
into Egypt, and lived with him as his wife, though she was his full
sister, the daughter both of his father and his mother. The way wherein
he had made her his wife was the following:-It was not the custom
of the Persians, before his time, to marry their sisters, but Cambyses,
happening to fall in love with one of his and wishing to take her
to wife, as he knew that it was an uncommon thing, called together
the royal judges, and put it to them, "whether there was any law which
allowed a brother, if he wished, to marry his sister?" Now the royal
judges are certain picked men among the Persians, who hold their office
for life, or until they are found guilty of some misconduct. By them
justice is administered in Persia, and they are the interpreters of
the old laws, all disputes being referred to their decision. When
Cambyses, therefore, put his question to these judges, they gave him
an answer which was at once true and safe- "they did not find any
law," they said, "allowing a brother to take his sister to wife, but
they found a law, that the king of the Persians might do whatever
he pleased." And so they neither warped the law through fear of Cambyses,
nor ruined themselves by over stiffly maintaining the law; but they
brought another quite distinct law to the king's help, which allowed
him to have his wish. Cambyses, therefore, married the object of his
love, and no long time afterwards he took to wife another sister.
It was the younger of these who went with him into Egypt, and there
suffered death at his hands.
Concerning the manner of her death, as concerning that of Smerdis,
two different accounts are given. The story which the Greeks tell
is that Cambyses had set a young dog to fight the cub of a lioness-
his wife looking on at the time. Now the dog was getting the worse,
when a pup of the same litter broke his chain, and came to his brother's
aid- then the two dogs together fought the lion, and conquered him.
The thing greatly pleased Cambyses, but his sister who was sitting
by shed tears. When Cambyses saw this, he asked her why she wept:
whereon she told him, that seeing the young dog come to his brother's
aid made her think of Smerdis, whom there was none to help. For this
speech, the Greeks say, Cambyses put her to death. But the Egyptians
tell the story thus:- The two were sitting at table, when the sister
took a lettuce, and stripping the leaves off, asked her brother "when
he thought the lettuce looked the prettiest- when it had all its leaves
on, or now that it was stripped?" He answered, "When the leaves were
on." "But thou," she rejoined, "hast done as I did to the lettuce,
and made bare the house of Cyrus." Then Cambyses was wroth, and sprang
fiercely upon her, though she was with child at the time. And so it
came to pass that she miscarried and died.
Thus mad was Cambyses upon his own kindred, and this either from his
usage of Apis, or from some other among the many causes from which
calamities are wont to arise. They say that from his birth he was
afflicted with a dreadful disease, the disorder which some call "the
sacred sickness." It would be by no means strange, therefore, if his
mind were affected in some degree, seeing that his body laboured under
so sore a malady.
He was mad also upon others besides his kindred; among the rest, upon
Prexaspes, the man whom he esteemed beyond all the rest of the Persians,
who carried his messages, and whose son held the office- an honour
of no small account in Persia- of his cupbearer. Him Cambyses is said
to have once addressed as follows:- "What sort of man, Prexaspes,
do the Persians think me? What do they say of me?" Prexaspes answered,
"Oh! sire, they praise thee greatly in all things but one- they say
thou art too much given to love of wine." Such Prexaspes told him
was the judgment of the Persians; whereupon Cambyses, full of rage,
made answer, "What? they say now that I drink too much wine, and so
have lost my senses, and am gone out of my mind! Then their former
speeches about me were untrue." For once, when the Persians were sitting
with him, and Croesus was by, he had asked them, "What sort of man
they thought him compared to his father Cyrus?" Hereon they had answered,
"That he surpassed his father, for he was lord of all that his father
ever ruled, and further had made himself master of Egypt, and the
sea." Then Croesus, who was standing near, and misliked the comparison,
spoke thus to Cambyses: "In my judgment, O son of Cyrus, thou art
not equal to thy father, for thou hast not yet left behind thee such
a son as he." Cambyses was delighted when he heard this reply, and
praised the judgment of Croesus.
Recollecting these answers, Cambyses spoke fiercely to Prexaspes,
saying, "Judge now thyself, Prexaspes, whether the Persians tell the
truth, or whether it is not they who are mad for speaking as they
do. Look there now at thy son standing in the vestibule- if I shoot
and hit him right in the middle of the heart, it will be plain the
Persians have no grounds for what they say: if I miss him, then I
allow that the Persians are right, and that I am out of my mind."
So speaking he drew his bow to the full, and struck the boy, who straightway
fell down dead. Then Cambyses ordered the body to be opened, and the
wound examined; and when the arrow was found to have entered the heart,
the king was quite overjoyed, and said to the father with a laugh,
"Now thou seest plainly, Prexaspes, that it is not I who am mad, but
the Persians who have lost their senses. I pray thee tell me, sawest
thou ever mortal man send an arrow with a better aim?" Prexaspes,
seeing that the king was not in his right mind, and fearing for himself,
replied, "Oh! my lord, I do not think that God himself could shoot
so dexterously." Such was the outrage which Cambyses committed at
this time: at another, he took twelve of the noblest Persians, and,
without bringing any charge worthy of death against them, buried them
all up to the neck.
Hereupon Croesus the Lydian thought it right to admonish Cambyses,
which he did in these words following:- "Oh! king, allow not thyself
to give way entirely to thy youth, and the heat of thy temper, but
check and control thyself. It is well to look to consequences, and
in forethought is true wisdom. Thou layest hold of men, who are thy
fellow-citizens, and, without cause of complaint, slayest them- thou
even puttest children to death- bethink thee now, if thou shalt often
do things like these, will not the Persians rise in revolt against
thee? It is by thy father's wish that I offer thee advice; he charged
me strictly to give thee such counsel as I might see to be most for
thy good." In thus advising Cambyses, Croesus meant nothing but what
was friendly. But Cambyses answered him, "Dost thou presume to offer
me advice? Right well thou ruledst thy own country when thou wert
a king, and right sage advice thou gavest my father Cyrus, bidding
him cross the Araxes and fight the Massagetae in their own land, when
they were willing to have passed over into ours. By thy misdirection
of thine own affairs thou broughtest ruin upon thyself, and by thy
bad counsel, which he followed, thou broughtest ruin upon Cyrus, my
father. But thou shalt not escape punishment now, for I have long
been seeking to find some occasion against thee." As he thus spoke,
Cambyses took up his bow to shoot at Croesus; but Croesus ran hastily
out, and escaped. So when Cambyses found that he could not kill him
with his bow, he bade his servants seize him, and put him to death.
The servants, however, who knew their master's humour, thought it
best to hide Croesus; that so, if Cambyses relented, and asked for
him, they might bring him out, and get a reward for having saved his
life- if, on the other hand, he did not relent, or regret the loss,
they might then despatch him. Not long afterwards, Cambyses did in
fact regret the loss of Croesus, and the servants, perceiving it,
let him know that he was still alive. "I am glad," said he, "that
Croesus lives, but as for you who saved him, ye shall not escape my
vengeance, but shall all of you be put to death." And he did even
as he had said.
Many other wild outrages of this sort did Cambyses commit, both upon
the Persians and the allies, while he still stayed at Memphis; among
the rest he opened the ancient sepulchres, and examined the bodies
that were buried in them. He likewise went into the temple of Vulcan,
and made great sport of the image. For the image of Vulcan is very
like the Pataeci of the Phoenicians, wherewith they ornament the prows
of their ships of war. If persons have not seen these, I will explain
in a different way- it is a figure resembling that of a pigmy. He
went also into the temple of the Cabiri, which it is unlawful for
any one to enter except the priests, and not only made sport of the
images, but even burnt them. They are made like the statue of Vulcan,
who is said to have been their father.
Thus it appears certain to me, by a great variety of proofs, that
Cambyses was raving mad; he would not else have set himself to make
a mock of holy rites and long-established usages. For if one were
to offer men to choose out of all the customs in the world such as
seemed to them the best, they would examine the whole number, and
end by preferring their own; so convinced are they that their own
usages far surpass those of all others. Unless, therefore, a man was
mad, it is not likely that he would make sport of such matters. That
people have this feeling about their laws may be seen by very many
proofs: among others, by the following. Darius, after he had got the
kingdom, called into his presence certain Greeks who were at hand,
and asked- "What he should pay them to eat the bodies of their fathers
when they died?" To which they answered, that there was no sum that
would tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians,
of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fathers, and asked
them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew by the help of an interpreter
all that was said - "What he should give them to burn the bodies of
their fathers at their decease?" The Indians exclaimed aloud, and
bade him forbear such language. Such is men's wont herein; and Pindar
was right, in my judgment, when he said, "Law is the king o'er all."
While Cambyses was carrying on this war in Egypt, the Lacedaemonians
likewise sent a force to Samos against Polycrates, the son of Aeaces,
who had by insurrection made himself master of that island. At the
outset he divided the state into three parts, and shared the kingdom
with his brothers, Pantagnotus and Syloson; but later, having killed
the former and banished the latter, who was the younger of the two,
he held the whole island. Hereupon he made a contract of friendship
with Amasis the Egyptian king, sending him gifts, and receiving from
him others in return. In a little while his power so greatly increased,
that the fame of it went abroad throughout Ionia and the rest of Greece.
Wherever he turned his arms, success waited on him. He had a fleet
of a hundred penteconters, and bowmen to the number of a thousand.
Herewith he plundered all, without distinction of friend or foe; for
he argued that a friend was better pleased if you gave him back what
you had taken from him, than if you spared him at the first. He captured
many of the islands, and several towns upon the mainland. Among his
other doings he overcame the Lesbians in a sea-fight, when they came
with all their forces to the help of Miletus, and made a number of
them prisoners. These persons, laden with fetters, dug the moat which
surrounds the castle at Samos.
The exceeding good fortune of Polycrates did not escape the notice
of Amasis, who was much disturbed thereat. When therefore his successes
continued increasing, Amasis wrote him the following letter, and sent
it to Samos. "Amasis to Polycrates thus sayeth: It is a pleasure to
hear of a friend and ally prospering, but thy exceeding prosperity
does not cause me joy, forasmuch as I know that the gods are envious.
My wish for myself and for those whom I love is to be now successful,
and now to meet with a check; thus passing through life amid alternate
good and ill, rather than with perpetual good fortune. For never yet
did I hear tell of any one succeeding in all his undertakings, who
did not meet with calamity at last, and come to utter ruin. Now, therefore,
give ear to my words, and meet thy good luck in this way: bethink
thee which of all thy treasures thou valuest most and canst least
bear to part with; take it, whatsoever it be, and throw it away, so
that it may be sure never to come any more into the sight of man.
Then, if thy good fortune be not thenceforth chequered with ill, save
thyself from harm by again doing as I have counselled."
When Polycrates read this letter, and perceived that the advice of
Amasis was good, he considered carefully with himself which of the
treasures that he had in store it would grieve him most to lose. After
much thought he made up his mind that it was a signet-ring which he
was wont to wear, an emerald set in gold, the workmanship of Theodore,
son of Telecles, a Samian. So he determined to throw this away; and,
manning a penteconter, he went on board, and bade the sailors put
out into the open sea. When he was now a long way from the island,
he took the ring from his finger, and, in the sight of all those who
were on board, flung it into the deep. This done, he returned home,
and gave vent to his sorrow.
Now it happened five or six days afterwards that a fisherman caught
a fish so large and beautiful that he thought it well deserved to
be made a present of to the king. So he took it with him to the gate
of the palace, and said that he wanted to see Polycrates. Then Polycrates
allowed him to come in, and the fisherman gave him the fish with these
words following- "Sir king, when I took this prize, I thought I would
not carry it to market, though I am a poor man who live by my trade.
I said to myself, it is worthy of Polycrates and his greatness; and
so I brought it here to give it to you." The speech pleased the king,
who thus spoke in reply:- "Thou didst right well, friend, and I am
doubly indebted, both for the gift, and for the speech. Come now,
and sup with me." So the fisherman went home, esteeming it a high
honour that he had been asked to sup with the king. Meanwhile the
servants, on cutting open the fish, found the signet of their master
in its belly. No sooner did they see it than they seized upon it,
and hastening to Polycrates with great joy, restored it to him, and
told him in what way it had been found. The king, who saw something
providential in the matter, forthwith wrote a letter to Amasis, telling
him all that had happened, what he had himself done, and what had
been the upshot- and despatched the letter to Egypt.
When Amasis had read the letter of Polycrates, he perceived that it
does not belong to man to save his fellow-man from the fate which
is in store for him; likewise he felt certain that Polycrates would
end ill, as he prospered in everything, even finding what he had thrown
away. So he sent a herald to Samos, and dissolved the contract of
friendship. This he did, that when the great and heavy misfortune
came, he might escape the grief which he would have felt if the sufferer
had been his bond-friend.
It was with this Polycrates, so fortunate in every undertaking, that
the Lacedaemonians now went to war. Certain Samians, the same who
afterwards founded the city of Cydonia in Crete, had earnestly intreated
their help. For Polycrates, at the time when Cambyses, son of Cyrus,
was gathering together an armament against Egypt, had sent to beg
him not to omit to ask aid from Samos; whereupon Cambyses with much
readiness despatched a messenger to the island, and made request that
Polycrates would give some ships to the naval force which he was collecting
against Egypt. Polycrates straightway picked out from among the citizens
such as he thought most likely to stir revolt against him, and manned
with them forty triremes, which he sent to Cambyses, bidding him keep
the men safe, and never allow them to return home.
Now some accounts say that these Samians did not reach Egypt; for
that when they were off Carpathus, they took counsel together and
resolved to sail no further. But others maintain that they did go
to Egypt, and, finding themselves watched, deserted, and sailed back
to Samos. There Polycrates went out against them with his fleet, and
a battle was fought and gained by the exiles; after which they disembarked
upon the island and engaged the land forces of Polycrates, but were
defeated, and so sailed off to Lacedaemon. Some relate that the Samians
from Egypt overcame Polycrates, but it seems to me untruly; for had
the Samians been strong enough to conquer Polycrates by themselves,
they would not have needed to call in the aid of the Lacedaemonians.
And moreover, it is not likely that a king who had in his pay so large
a body of foreign mercenaries, and maintained likewise such a force
of native bowmen, would have been worsted by an army so small as that
of the returned Samians. As for his own subjects, to hinder them from
betraying him and joining the exiles, Polycrates shut up their wives
and children in the sheds built to shelter his ships, and was ready
to burn sheds and all in case of need.
When the banished Samians reached Sparta, they had audience of the
magistrates, before whom they made a long speech, as was natural with
persons greatly in want of aid. Accordingly at this first sitting
the Spartans answered them that they had forgotten the first half
of their speech, and could make nothing of the remainder. Afterwards
the Samians had another audience, whereat they simply said, showing
a bag which they had brought with them, "The bag wants flour." The
Spartans answered that they did not need to have said "the bag"; however,
they resolved to give them aid.
Then the Lacedaemonians made ready and set forth to the attack of
Samos, from a motive of gratitude, if we may believe the Samians,
because the Samians had once sent ships to their aid against the Messenians;
but as the Spartans themselves say, not so much from any wish to assist
the Samians who begged their help, as from a desire to punish the
people who had seized the bowl which they sent to Croesus, and the
corselet which Amasis, king of Egypt, sent as a present to them. The
Samians made prize of this corselet the year before they took the
bowl- it was of linen, and had a vast number of figures of animals
inwoven into its fabric, and was likewise embroidered with gold and
tree-wool. What is most worthy of admiration in it is that each of
the twists, although of fine texture, contains within it three hundred
and sixty threads, all of them clearly visible. The corselet which
Amasis gave to the temple of Minerva in Lindus is just such another.
The Corinthians likewise right willingly lent a helping hand towards
the expedition against Samos; for a generation earlier, about the
time of the seizure of the wine-bowl, they too had suffered insult
at the hands of the Samians. It happened that Periander, son of Cypselus,
had taken three hundred boys, children of the chief nobles among the
Corcyraeans, and sent them to Alyattes for eunuchs; the men who had
them in charge touched at Samos on their way to Sardis; whereupon
the Samians, having found out what was to become of the boys when
they reached that city, first prompted them to take sanctuary at the
temple of Diana; and after this, when the Corinthians, as they were
forbidden to tear the suppliants from the holy place, sought to cut
off from them all supplies of food, invented a festival in their behalf,
which they celebrate to this day with the selfsame rites. Each evening,
as night closed in, during the whole time that the boys continued
there, choirs of youths and virgins were placed about the temple,
carrying in their hands cakes made of sesame and honey, in order that
the Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so get enough to live
upon.
And this went on for so long, that at last the Corinthians who had
charge of the boys gave them up, and took their departure, upon which
the Samians conveyed them back to Corcyra. If now, after the death
of Periander, the Corinthians and Corcyraeans had been good friends,
it is not to be imagined that the former would ever have taken part
in the expedition against Samos for such a reason as this; but as,
in fact, the two people have always, ever since the first settlement
of the island, been enemies to one another, this outrage was remembered,
and the Corinthians bore the Samians a grudge for it. Periander had
chosen the youths from among the first families in Corcyra, and sent
them a present to Alyattes, to avenge a wrong which he had received.
For it was the Corcyraeans who began the quarrel and injured Periander
by an outrage of a horrid nature.
After Periander had put to death his wife Melissa, it chanced that
on this first affliction a second followed of a different kind. His
wife had borne him two sons, and one of them had now reached the age
of seventeen, the other of eighteen years, when their mother's father,
Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, asked them to his court. They went,
and Procles treated them with much kindness, as was natural, considering
they were his own daughter's children. At length, when the time for
parting came, Procles, as he was sending them on their way, said,
"Know you now, my children, who it was that caused your mother's death?"
The elder son took no account of this speech, but the younger, whose
name was Lycophron, was sorely troubled at it- so much so, that when
he got back to Corinth, looking upon his father as his mother's murderer,
he would neither speak to him, nor answer when spoken to, nor utter
a word in reply to all his questionings. So Periander at last, growing
furious at such behaviour, banished him from his house.
The younger son gone, he turned to the elder and asked him, "what
it was that their grandfather had said to them?" Then he related in
how kind and friendly a fashion he had received them; but, not having
taken any notice of the speech which Procles had uttered at parting,
he quite forgot to mention it. Periander insisted that it was not
possible this should be all- their grandfather must have given them
some hint or other- and he went on pressing him, till at last the
lad remembered the parting speech and told it. Periander, after he
had turned the whole matter over in his thoughts, and felt unwilling
to give way at all, sent a messenger to the persons who had opened
their houses to his outcast son, and forbade them to harbour him.
Then the boy, when he was chased from one friend, sought refuge with
another, but was driven from shelter to shelter by the threats of
his father, who menaced all those that took him in, and commanded
them to shut their doors against him. Still, as fast as he was forced
to leave one house he went to another, and was received by the inmates;
for his acquaintance, although in no small alarm, yet gave him shelter,
as he was Periander's son.
At last Periander made proclamation that whoever harboured his son
or even spoke to him, should forfeit a certain sum of money to Apollo.
On hearing this no one any longer liked to take him in, or even to
hold converse with him, and he himself did not think it right to seek
to do what was forbidden; so, abiding by his resolve, he made his
lodging in the public porticos. When four days had passed in this
way, Periander, secing how wretched his son was, that he neither washed
nor took any food, felt moved with compassion towards him; wherefore,
foregoing his anger, he approached him, and said, "Which is better,
oh! my son, to fare as now thou farest, or to receive my crown and
all the good things that I possess, on the one condition of submitting
thyself to thy father? See, now, though my own child, and lord of
this wealthy Corinth, thou hast brought thyself to a beggar's life,
because thou must resist and treat with anger him whom it least behoves
thee to oppose. If there has been a calamity, and thou bearest me
ill will on that account, bethink thee that I too feel it, and am
the greatest sufferer, in as much as it was by me that the deed was
done. For thyself, now that thou knowest how much better a thing it
is to be envied than pitied, and how dangerous it is to indulge anger
against parents and superiors, come back with me to thy home." With
such words as these did Periander chide his son; but the son made
no reply, except to remind his father that he was indebted to the
god in the penalty for coming and holding converse with him. Then
Periander knew that there was no cure for the youth's malady, nor
means of overcoming it; so he prepared a ship and sent him away out
of his sight to Corcyra, which island at that time belonged to him.
As for Procles, Periander, regarding him as the true author of all
his present troubles, went to war with him as soon as his son was
gone, and not only made himself master of his kingdom Epidaurus, but
also took Procles himself, and carried him into captivity.
As time went on, and Periander came to be old, he found himself no
longer equal to the oversight and management of affairs. Seeing, therefore,
in his eldest son no manner of ability, but knowing him to be dull
and blockish, he sent to Corcyra and recalled Lycophron to take the
kingdom. Lycophron, however, did not even deign to ask the bearer
of this message a question. But Periander's heart was set upon the
youth, so he sent again to him, this time by his own daughter, the
sister of Lycophron, who would, he thought, have more power to persuade
him than any other person. Then she, when she reached Corcyra, spoke
thus with her brother:- "Dost thou wish the kingdom, brother, to pass
into strange hands, and our father's wealth to be made a prey, rather
than thyself return to enjoy it? Come back home with me, and cease
to punish thyself. It is scant gain, this obstinacy. Why seek to cure
evil by evil? Mercy, remember, is by many set above justice. Many,
also, while pushing their mother's claims have forfeited their father's
fortune. Power is a slippery thing- it has many suitors; and he is
old and stricken in years- let not thy own inheritance go to another."
Thus did the sister, who had been tutored by Periander what to say,
urge all the arguments most likely to have weight with her brother.
He however made answer, "That so long as he knew his father to be
still alive, he would never go back to Corinth." When the sister brought
Periander this reply, he sent his son a third time by a herald, and
said he would come himself to Corcyra, and let his son take his place
at Corinth as heir to his kingdom. To these terms Lycophron agreed;
and Periander was making ready to pass into Corcyra and his son to
return to Corinth, when the Corcyraeans, being informed of what was
taking place, to keep Periander away, put the young man to death.
For this reason it was that Periander took vengeance on the Corcyraeans.
The Lacedaemonians arrived before Samos with a mighty armament, and
forthwith laid siege to the place. In one of the assaults upon the
walls, they forced their way to the top of the tower which stands
by the sea on the side where the suburb is, but Polycrates came in
person to the rescue with a strong force, and beat them back. Meanwhile
at the upper tower, which stood on the ridge of the hill, the besieged,
both mercenaries and Samians, made a sally; but after they had withstood
the Lacedaemonians a short time, they fled backwards, and the Lacedaemonians,
pressing upon them, slew numbers.
If now all who were present had behaved that day like Archias and
Lycopas, two of the Lacedaemonians, Samos might have been taken. For
these two heroes, following hard upon the flying Samians, entered
the city along with them, and, being all alone, and their retreat
cut off, were slain within the walls of the place. I myself once fell
in with the grandson of this Archias, a man named Archias like his
grandsire, and the son of Samius, whom I met at Pitana, to which canton
he belonged. He respected the Samians beyond all other foreigners,
and he told me that his father was called Samius, because his grandfather
Archias died in Samos so gloriously, and that the reason why he respected
the Samians so greatly was that his grandsire was buried with public
honours by the Samian people.
The Lacedaemonians besieged Samos during forty days, but not making
any progress before the place, they raised the siege at the end of
that time, and returned home to the Peloponnese. There is a silly
tale told that Polycrates struck a quantity of the coin of his country
in lead, and, coating it with gold, gave it to the Lacedaemonians,
who on receiving it took their departure.
This was the first expedition into Asia of the Lacedaemonian Dorians.
The Samians who had fought against Polycrates, when they knew that
the Lacedaemonians were about to forsake them, left Samos themselves,
and sailed to Siphnos. They happened to be in want of money; and the
Siphnians at that time were at the height of their greatness, no islanders
having so much wealth as they. There were mines of gold and silver
in their country, and of so rich a yield, that from a tithe of the
ores the Siphnians furnished out a treasury at Delphi which was on
a par with the grandest there. What the mines yielded was divided
year by year among the citizens. At the time when they formed the
treasury, the Siphnians consulted the oracle, and asked whether their
good things would remain to them many years. The Pythoness made answer
as follows:-
When the Prytanies'seat shines white in the island of Siphnos,
White-browed all the forum-need then of a true seer's wisdom-
Danger will threat from a wooden host, and a herald in scarlet. Now
about this time the forum of the Siphnians and their townhall or prytaneum
had been adorned with Parian marble.
The Siphnians, however, were unable to understand the oracle, either
at the time when it was given, or afterwards on the arrival of the
Samians. For these last no sooner came to anchor off the island than
they sent one of their vessels, with an ambassage on board, to the
city. All ships in these early times were painted with vermilion;
and this was what the Pythoness had meant when she told them to beware
of danger "from a wooden host, and a herald in scarlet." So the ambassadors
came ashore and besought the Siphnians to lend them ten talents; but
the Siphnians refused, whereupon the Samians began to plunder their
lands. Tidings of this reached the Siphnians, who straightway sallied
forth to save their crops; then a battle was fought, in which the
Siphnians suffered defeat, and many of their number were cut off from
the city by the Samians, after which these latter forced the Siphnians
to give them a hundred talents.
With this money they bought of the Hermionians the island of Hydrea,
off the coast of the Peloponnese, and this they gave in trust to the
Troezenians, to keep for them, while they themselves went on to Crete,
and founded the city of Cydonia. They had not meant, when they set
sail, to settle there, but only to drive out the Zacynthians from
the island. However they rested at Cydonia, where they flourished
greatly for five years. It was they who built the various temples
that may still be seen at that place, and among them the fane of Dictyna.
But in the sixth year they were attacked by the Eginetans, who beat
them in a sea-fight, and, with the help of the Cretans, reduced them
all to slavery. The beaks of their ships, which carried the figure
of a wild boar, they sawed off, and laid them up in the temple of
Minerva in Egina. The Eginetans took part against the Samians on account
of an ancient grudge, since the Samians had first, when Amphicrates
was king of Samos, made war on them and done great harm to their island,
suffering, however, much damage also themselves. Such was the reason
which moved the Eginetans to make this attack.
I have dwelt the longer on the affairs of the Samians, because three
of the greatest works in all Greece were made by them. One is a tunnel,
under a hill one hundred and fifty fathoms high, carried entirely
through the base of the hill, with a mouth at either end. The length
of the cutting is seven furlongs- the height and width are each eight
feet. Along the whole course there is a second cutting, twenty cubits
deep and three feet broad, whereby water is brought, through pipes,
from an abundant source into the city. The architect of this tunnel
was Eupalinus, son of Naustrophus, a Megarian. Such is the first of
their great works; the second is a mole in the sea, which goes all
round the harbour, near twenty fathoms deep, and in length above two
furlongs. The third is a temple; the largest of all the temples known
to us, whereof Rhoecus, son of Phileus, a Samian, was first architect.
Because of these works I have dwelt the longer on the affairs of Samos.
While Cambyses, son of Cyrus, after losing his senses, still lingered
in Egypt, two Magi, brothers, revolted against him. One of them had
been left in Persia by Cambyses as comptroller of his household; and
it was he who began the revolt. Aware that Smerdis was dead, and that
his death was hid and known to few of the Persians, while most believed
that he was still alive, he laid his plan, and made a bold stroke
for the crown. He had a brother- the same of whom I spoke before as
his partner in the revolt- who happened greatly to resemble Smerdis
the son of Cyrus, whom Cambyses his brother had put to death. And
not only was this brother of his like Smerdis in person, but he also
bore the selfsame name, to wit Smerdis. Patizeithes, the other Magus,
having persuaded him that he would carry the whole business through,
took him and made him sit upon the royal throne. Having so done, he
sent heralds through all the land, to Egypt and elsewhere, to make
proclamation to the troops that henceforth they were to obey Smerdis
the son of Cyrus, and not Cambyses.
The other heralds therefore made proclamation as they were ordered,
and likewise the herald whose place it was to proceed into Egypt.
He, when he reached Agbatana in Syria, finding Cambyses and his army
there, went straight into the middle of the host, and standing forth
before them all, made the proclamation which Patizeithes the Magus
had commanded. Cambyses no sooner heard him, than believing that what
the herald said was true, and imagining that he had been betrayed
by Prexaspes (who, he supposed, had not put Smerdis to death when
sent into Persia for that purpose), he turned his eyes full upon Prexaspes,
and said, "Is this the way, Prexaspes, that thou didst my errand?"
"Oh! my liege," answered the other, "there is no truth in the tidings
that Smerdis thy brother has revolted against thee, nor hast thou
to fear in time to come any quarrel, great or small, with that man.
With my own hands I wrought thy will on him, and with my own hands
I buried him. If of a truth the dead can leave their graves, expect
Astyages the Mede to rise and fight against thee; but if the course
of nature be the same as formerly, then be sure no ill will ever come
upon thee from this quarter. Now, therefore, my counsel is that we
send in pursuit of the herald, and strictly question him who it was
that charged him to bid us obey king Smerdis."
When Prexaspes had so spoken, and Cambyses had approved his words,
the herald was forthwith pursued, and brought back to the king. Then
Prexaspes said to him, "Sirrah, thou bear'st us a message, sayst thou,
from Smerdis, son of Cyrus. Now answer truly, and go thy way scathless.
Did Smerdis have thee to his presence and give thee thy orders, or
hadst thou them from one of his officers?" The herald answered, "Truly
I have not set eyes on Smerdis son of Cyrus, since the day when king
Cambyses led the Persians into Egypt. The man who gave me my orders
was the Magus that Cambyses left in charge of the household; but he
said that Smerdis son of Cyrus sent you the message." In all this
the herald spoke nothing but the strict truth. Then Cambyses said
thus to Prexaspes:- "Thou art free from all blame, Prexaspes, since,
as a right good man, thou hast not failed to do the thing which I
commanded. But tell me now, which of the Persians can have taken the
name of Smerdis, and revolted from me?" "I think, my liege," he answered,
"that I apprehend the whole business. The men who have risen in revolt
against thee are the two Magi, Patizeithes, who was left comptroller
of thy household, and his brother, who is named Smerdis."
Cambyses no sooner heard the name of Smerdis than he was struck with
the truth of Prexaspes' words, and the fulfilment of his own dream-
the dream, I mean, which he had in former days, when one appeared
to him in his sleep and told him that Smerdis sate upon the royal
throne, and with his head touched the heavens. So when he saw that
he had needlessly slain his brother Smerdis, he wept and bewailed
his loss: after which, smarting with vexation as he thought of all
his ill luck, he sprang hastily upon his steed, meaning to march his
army with all haste to Susa against the Magus. As he made his spring,
the button of his sword-sheath fell off, and the bared point entered
his thigh, wounding him exactly where he had himself once wounded
the Egyptian god Apis. Then Cambyses, feeling that he had got his
death-wound, inquired the name of the place where he was, and was
answered, "Agbatana." Now before this it had been told him by the
oracle at Buto that he should end his days at Agbatana. He, however,
had understood the Median Agbatana, where all his treasures were,
and had thought that he should die there in a good old age; but the
oracle meant Agbatana in Syria. So when Cambyses heard the name of
the place, the double shock that he had received, from the revolt
of the Magus and from his wound, brought him back to his senses. And
he understood now the true meaning of the oracle, and said, "Here
then Cambyses, son of Cyrus, is doomed to die."
At this time he said no more; but twenty days afterwards he called
to his presence all the chief Persians who were with the army, and
addressed them as follows:- "Persians, needs must I tell you now what
hitherto I have striven with the greatest care to keep concealed.
When I was in Egypt I saw in my sleep a vision, which would that I
had never beheld! I thought a messenger came to me from my home, and
told me that Smerdis sate upon the royal throne, and with his head
touched the heavens. Then I feared to be cast from my throne by Smerdis
my brother, and I did what was more hasty than wise. Ah! truly, do
what they may, it is impossible for men to turn aside the coming fate.
I, in my folly, sent Prexaspes to Susa to put my brother to death.
So this great woe was accomplished, and I then lived without fear,
never imagining that, after Smerdis was dead, I need dread revolt
from any other. But herein I had quite mistaken what was about to
happen, and so I slew my brother without any need, and nevertheless
have lost my crown. For it was Smerdis the Magus, and not Smerdis
my brother, of whose rebellion God forewarned me by the vision. The
deed is done, however, and Smerdis, son of Cyrus, be sure is lost
to you. The Magi have the royal power- Patizeithes, whom I left at
Susa to overlook my household, and Smerdis his brother. There was
one who would have been bound beyond all others to avenge the wrongs
I have suffered from these Magians, but he, alas! has perished by
a horrid fate, deprived of life by those nearest and dearest to him.
In his default, nothing now remains for me but to tell you, O Persians,
what I would wish to have done after I have breathed my last. Therefore,
in the name of the gods that watch over our royal house, I charge
you all, and specially such of you as are Achaemenids, that ye do
not tamely allow the kingdom to go back to the Medes. Recover it one
way or another, by force or fraud; by fraud, if it is by fraud that
they have seized on it; by force, if force has helped them in their
enterprise. Do this, and then may your land bring you forth fruit
abundantly, and your wives bear children, and your herds increase,
and freedom be your portion for ever: but do it not- make no brave
struggle to regain the kingdom- and then my curse be on you, and may
the opposite of all these things happen to you- and not only so, but
may you, one and all, perish at the last by such a fate as mine!"
Then Cambyses, when he left speaking, bewailed his whole misfortune
from beginning to end.
Whereupon the Persians, seeing their king weep, rent the garments
that they had on, and uttered lamentable cries; after which, as the
bone presently grew carious, and the limb gangrened, Cambyses, son
of Cyrus, died. He had reigned in all seven years and five months,
and left no issue behind him, male or female. The Persians who had
heard his words, put no faith in anything that he said concerning
the Magi having the royal power; but believed that he spoke out of
hatred towards Smerdis, and had invented the tale of his death to
cause the whole Persian race to rise up in arms against him. Thus
they were convinced that it was Smerdis the son of Cyrus who had rebelled
and now sate on the throne. For Prexaspes stoutly denied that he had
slain Smerdis, since it was not safe for him, after Cambyses was dead,
to allow that a son of Cyrus had met with death at his hands.
Thus then Cambyses died, and the Magus now reigned in security, and
passed himself off for Smerdis the son of Cyrus. And so went by the
seven months which were wanting to complete the eighth year of Cambyses.
His subjects, while his reign lasted, received great benefits from
him, insomuch that, when he died, all the dwellers in Asia mourned
his loss exceedingly, except only the Persians. For no sooner did
he come to the throne than forthwith he sent round to every nation
under his rule, and granted them freedom from war-service and from
taxes for the space of three years.
In the eighth month, however, it was discovered who he was in the
mode following. There was a man called Otanes, the son of Pharnaspes,
who for rank and wealth was equal to the greatest of the Persians.
This Otanes was the first to suspect that the Magus was not Smerdis
the son of Cyrus, and to surmise moreover who he really was. He was
led to guess the truth by the king never quitting the citadel, and
never calling before him any of the Persian noblemen. As soon, therefore,
as his suspicions were aroused he adopted the following measures:-
One of his daughters, who was called Phaedima, had been married to
Cambyses, and was taken to wife, together with the rest of Cambyses'
wives, by the Magus. To this daughter Otanes sent a message, and inquired
of her "who it was whose bed she shared,- was it Smerdis the son of
Cyrus, or was it some other man?" Phaedima in reply declared she did
not know- Smerdis the son of Cyrus she had never seen, and so she
could not tell whose bed she shared. Upon this Otanes sent a second
time, and said, "If thou dost not know Smerdis son of Cyrus thyself,
ask queen Atossa who it is with whom ye both live- she cannot fail
to know her own brother." To this the daughter made answer, "I can
neither get speech with Atossa, nor with any of the women who lodge
in the palace. For no sooner did this man, be he who he may, obtain
the kingdom, than he parted us from one another, and gave us all separate
chambers."
This made the matter seem still more plain to Otanes. Nevertheless
he sent a third message to his daughter in these words following:-
"Daughter, thou art of noble blood- thou wilt not shrink from a risk
which thy father bids thee encounter. If this fellow be not Smerdis
the son of Cyrus, but the man whom I think him to be, his boldness
in taking thee to be his wife, and lording it over the Persians, must
not be allowed to pass unpunished. Now therefore do as I command-
when next he passes the night with thee, wait till thou art sure he
is fast asleep, and then feel for his ears. If thou findest him to
have ears, then believe him to be Smerdis the son of Cyrus, but if
he has none, know him for Smerdis the Magian." Phaedima returned for
answer, "It would be a great risk. If he was without ears, and caught
her feeling for them, she well knew he would make away with her- nevertheless
she would venture." So Otanes got his daughter's promise that she
would do as he desired. Now Smerdis the Magian had had his ears cut
off in the lifetime of Cyrus son of Cambyses, as a punishment for
a crime of no slight heinousness. Phaedima therefore, Otanes' daughter,
bent on accomplishing what she had promised her father, when her turn
came, and she was taken to the bed of the Magus (in Persia a man's
wives sleep with him in their turns), waited till he was sound asleep,
and then felt for his ears. She quickly perceived that he had no ears;
and of this, as soon as day dawned, she sent word to her father.
Then Otanes took to him two of the chief Persians, Aspathines and
Gobryas, men whom it was most advisable to trust in such a matter,
and told them everything. Now they had already of themselves suspected
how the matter stood. When Otanes therefore laid his reasons before
them they at once came into his views; and it was agreed that each
of the three should take as companion in the work the Persian in whom
he placed the greatest confidence. Then Otanes chose Intaphernes,
Gobryas Megabyzus, and Aspathines Hydarnes. After the number had thus
become six, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, arrived at Susa from Persia,
whereof his father was governor. On his coming it seemed good to the
six to take him likewise into their counsels.
After this, the men, being now seven in all, met together to exchange
oaths, and hold discourse with one another. And when it came to the
turn of Darius to speak his mind, he said as follows:- "Methought
no one but I knew that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, was not now alive,
and that Smerdis the Magian ruled over us; on this account I came
hither with speed, to compass the death of the Magian. But as it seems
the matter is known to you all, and not to me only, my judgment is
that we should act at once, and not any longer delay. For to do so
were not well." Otanes spoke upon this:- "Son of Hystaspes," said
he, "thou art the child of a brave father, and seemest likely to show
thyself as bold a gallant as he. Beware, however, of rash haste in
this matter; do not hurry so, but proceed with soberness. We must
add to our number ere we adventure to strike the blow." "Not so,"
Darius rejoined; "for let all present be well assured that if the
advice of Otanes guide our acts, we shall perish most miserably. Some
one will betray our plot to the Magians for lucre's sake. Ye ought
to have kept the matter to yourselves, and so made the venture; but
as ye have chosen to take others into your secret, and have opened
the matter to me, take my advice and make the attempt today- or if
not, if a single day be suffered to pass by, be sure that I will let
no one betray me to the Magian. I myself will go to him, and plainly
denounce you all."
Otanes, when he saw Darius so hot, replied, "But if thou wilt force
us to action, and not allow a day's delay, tell us, I pray thee, how
we shall get entrance into the palace, so as to set upon them. Guards
are placed everywhere, as thou thyself well knowest- for if thou hast
not seen, at least thou hast heard tell of them. How are we to pass
these guards, I ask thee?" answered Darius, "there are many things
easy enough in act, which by speech it is hard to explain. There are
also things concerning which speech is easy, but no noble action follows
when the speech is done. As for these guards, ye know well that we
shall not find it hard to make our way through them. Our rank alone
would cause them to allow us to enter- shame and fear alike forbidding
them to say us nay. But besides, I have the fairest plea that can
be conceived for gaining admission. I can say that I have just come
from Persia, and have a message to deliver to the king from my father.
An untruth must be spoken, where need requires. For whether men lie,
or say true, it is with one and the same object. Men lie, because
they think to gain by deceiving others; and speak the truth, because
they expect to get something by their true speaking, and to be trusted
afterwards in more important matters. Thus, though their conduct is
so opposite, the end of both is alike. If there were no gain to be
got, your true-speaking man would tell untruths as much as your liar,
and your liar would tell the truth as much as your true-speaking man.
The doorkeeper, who lets us in readily, shall have his guerdon some
day or other; but woe to the man who resists us, he must forthwith
be declared an enemy. Forcing our way past him, we will press in and
go straight to our work."
After Darius had thus said, Gobryas spoke as follows:- "Dear friends,
when will a fitter occasion offer for us to recover the kingdom, or,
if we are not strong enough, at least die in the attempt? Consider
that we Persians are governed by a Median Magus, and one, too, who
has had his ears cut off! Some of you were present when Cambyses lay
upon his deathbed- such, doubtless, remember what curses he called
down upon the Persians if they made no effort to recover the kingdom.
Then, indeed, we paid but little heed to what he said, because we
thought he spoke out of hatred to set us against his brother. Now,
however, my vote is that we do as Darius has counselled- march straight
in a body to the palace from the place where we now are, and forthwith
set upon the Magian." So Gobryas spake, and the others all approved.
While the seven were thus taking counsel together, it so chanced that
the following events were happening:- The Magi had been thinking what
they had best do, and had resolved for many reasons to make a friend
of Prexaspes. They knew how cruelly he had been outraged by Cambyses,
who slew his son with an arrow; they were also aware that it was by
his hand that Smerdis the son of Cyrus fell, and that he was the only
person privy to that prince's death; and they further found him to
be held in the highest esteem by all the Persians. So they called
him to them, made him their friend, and bound him by a promise and
by oaths to keep silence about the fraud which they were practising
upon the Persians, and not discover it to any one; and they pledged
themselves that in this case they would give him thousands of gifts
of every sort and kind. So Prexaspes agreed, and the Magi, when they
found that they had persuaded him so far, went on to another proposal,
and said they would assemble the Persians at the foot of the palace
wall, and he should mount one of the towers and harangue them from
it, assuring them that Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and none but he,
ruled the land. This they bade him do, because Prexaspes was a man
of great weight with his countrymen, and had often declared in public
that Smerdis the son of Cyrus was still alive, and denied being his
murderer.
Prexaspes said he was quite ready to do their will in the matter;
so the Magi assembled the people, and placed Prexaspes upon the top
of the tower, and told him to make his speech. Then this man, forgetting
of set purpose all that the Magi had intreated him to say, began with
Achaeamenes, and traced down the descent of Cyrus; after which, when
he came to that king, he recounted all the services that had been
rendered by him to the Persians, from whence he went on to declare
the truth, which hitherto he had concealed, he said, because it would
not have been safe for him to make it known, but now necessity was
laid on him to disclose the whole. Then he told how, forced to it
by Cambyses, he had himself taken the life of Smerdis, son of Cyrus,
and how that Persia was now ruled by the Magi. Last of all, with many
curses upon the Persians if they did not recover the kingdom, and
wreak vengeance on the Magi, he threw himself headlong from the tower
into the abyss below. Such was the end of Prexaspes, a man all his
life of high repute among the Persians.
And now the seven Persians, having resolved that they would attack
the Magi without more delay, first offered prayers to the gods and
then set off for the palace, quite unacquainted with what had been
done by Prexaspes. The news of his doings reached them upon their
way, when they had accomplished about half the distance. Hereupon
they turned aside out of the road, and consulted together. Otanes
and his party said they must certainly put off the business, and not
make the attack when affairs were in such a ferment. Darius, on the
other hand, and his friends, were against any change of plan, and
wished to go straight on, and not lose a moment. Now, as they strove
together, suddenly there came in sight two pairs of vultures, and
seven pairs of hawks, pursuing them, and the hawks tore the vultures
both with their claws and bills. At this sight the seven with one
accord came in to the opinion of Darius, and encouraged by the omen
hastened on towards the palace.
At the gate they were received as Darius had foretold. The guards,
who had no suspicion that they came for any ill purpose, and held
the chief Persians in much reverence, let them pass without difficulty-
it seemed as if they were under the special protection of the gods-
none even asked them any question. When they were now in the great
court they fell in with certain of the eunuchs, whose business it
was to carry the king's messages, who stopped them and asked what
they wanted, while at the same time they threatened the doorkeepers
for having let them enter. The seven sought to press on, but the eunuchs
would not suffer them. Then these men, with cheers encouraging one
another, drew their daggers, and stabbing those who strove to withstand
them, rushed forward to the apartment of the males.
Now both the Magi were at this time within, holding counsel upon the
matter of Prexaspes. So when they heard the stir among the eunuchs,
and their loud cries, they ran out themselves, to see what was happening.
Instantly perceiving their danger, they both flew to arms; one had
just time to seize his bow, the other got hold of his lance; when
straightway the fight began. The one whose weapon was the bow found
it of no service at all; the foe was too near, and the combat too
close to allow of his using it. But the other made a stout defence
with his lance, wounding two of the seven, Aspathines in the leg,
and Intaphernes in the eye. This wound did not kill Intaphernes, but
it cost him the sight of that eye. The other Magus, when he found
his bow of no avail, fled into a chamber which opened out into the
apartment of the males, intending to shut to the doors. But two of
the seven entered the room with him, Darius and Gobryas. Gobryas seized
the Magus and grappled with him, while Darius stood over them, not
knowing what to do; for it was dark, and he was afraid that if he
struck a blow he might kill Gobryas. Then Gobyras, when he perceived
that Darius stood doing nothing, asked him, "why his hand was idle?"
"I fear to hurt thee," he answered. "Fear not," said Gobryas; "strike,
though it be through both." Darius did as he desired, drove his dagger
home, and by good hap killed the Magus.
Thus were the Magi slain; and the seven, cutting off both the heads,
and leaving their own wounded in the palace, partly because they were
disabled, and partly to guard the citadel, went forth from the gates
with the heads in their hands, shouting and making an uproar. They
called out to all the Persians whom they met, and told them what had
happened, showing them the heads of the Magi, while at the same time
they slew every Magus who fell in their way. Then the Persians, when
they knew what the seven had done, and understood the fraud of the
Magi, thought it but just to follow the example set them, and, drawing
their daggers, they killed the Magi wherever they could find any.
Such was their fury, that, unless night had closed in, not a single
Magus would have been left alive. The Persians observe this day with
one accord, and keep it more strictly than any other in the whole
year. It is then that they hold the great festival, which they call
the Magophonia. No Magus may show himself abroad during the whole
time that the feast lasts; but all must remain at home the entire
day.
And now when five days were gone, and the hubbub had settled down,
the conspirators met together to consult about the situation of affairs.
At this meeting speeches were made, to which many of the Greeks give
no credence, but they were made nevertheless. Otanes recommended that
the management of public affairs should be entrusted to the whole
nation. "To me," he said, "it seems advisable, that we should no longer
have a single man to rule over us- the rule of one is neither good
nor pleasant. Ye cannot have forgotten to what lengths Cambyses went
in his haughty tyranny, and the haughtiness of the Magi ye have yourselves
experienced. How indeed is it possible that monarchy should be a well-adjusted
thing, when it allows a man to do as he likes without being answerable?
Such licence is enough to stir strange and unwonted thoughts in the
heart of the worthiest of men. Give a person this power, and straightway
his manifold good things puff him up with pride, while envy is so
natural to human kind that it cannot but arise in him. But pride and
envy together include all wickedness- both of them leading on to deeds
of savage violence. True it is that kings, possessing as they do all
that heart can desire, ought to be void of envy; but the contrary
is seen in their conduct towards the citizens. They are jealous of
the most virtuous among their subjects, and wish their death; while
they take delight in the meanest and basest, being ever ready to listen
to the tales of slanderers. A king, besides, is beyond all other men
inconsistent with himself. Pay him court in moderation, and he is
angry because you do not show him more profound respect- show him
profound respect, and he is offended again, because (as he says) you
fawn on him. But the worst of all is, that he sets aside the laws
of the land, puts men to death without trial, and subjects women to
violence. The rule of the many, on the other hand, has, in the first
place, the fairest of names, to wit, isonomy; and further it is free
from all those outrages which a king is wont to commit. There, places
are given by lot, the magistrate is answerable for what he does, and
measures rest with the commonalty. I vote, therefore, that we do away
with monarchy, and raise the people to power. For the people are all
in all."
Such were the sentiments of Otanes. Megabyzus spoke next, and advised
the setting up of an oligarchy:- "In all that Otanes has said to persuade
you to put down monarchy," he observed, "I fully concur; but his recommendation
that we should call the people to power seems to me not the best advice.
For there is nothing so void of understanding, nothing so full of
wantonness, as the unwieldy rabble. It were folly not to be borne,
for men, while seeking to escape the wantonness of a tyrant, to give
themselves up to the wantonness of a rude unbridled mob. The tyrant,
in all his doings, at least knows what is he about, but a mob is altogether
devoid of knowledge; for how should there be any knowledge in a rabble,
untaught, and with no natural sense of what is right and fit? It rushes
wildly into state affairs with all the fury of a stream swollen in
the winter, and confuses everything. Let the enemies of the Persians
be ruled by democracies; but let us choose out from the citizens a
certain number of the worthiest, and put the government into their
hands. For thus both we ourselves shall be among the governors, and
power being entrusted to the best men, it is likely that the best
counsels will prevail in the state."
This was the advice which Megabyzus gave, and after him Darius came
forward, and spoke as follows:- "All that Megabyzus said against democracy
was well said, I think; but about oligarchy he did not speak advisedly;
for take these three forms of government- democracy, oligarchy, and
monarchy- and let them each be at their best, I maintain that monarchy
far surpasses the other two. What government can possibly be better
than that of the very best man in the whole state? The counsels of
such a man are like himself, and so he governs the mass of the people
to their heart's content; while at the same time his measures against
evil-doers are kept more secret than in other states. Contrariwise,
in oligarchies, where men vie with each other in the service of the
commonwealth, fierce enmities are apt to arise between man and man,
each wishing to be leader, and to carry his own measures; whence violent
quarrels come, which lead to open strife, often ending in bloodshed.
Then monarchy is sure to follow; and this too shows how far that rule
surpasses all others. Again, in a democracy, it is impossible but
that there will be malpractices: these malpractices, however, do not
lead to enmities, but to close friendships, which are formed among
those engaged in them, who must hold well together to carry on their
villainies. And so things go on until a man stands forth as champion
of the commonalty, and puts down the evil-doers. Straightway the author
of so great a service is admired by all, and from being admired soon
comes to be appointed king; so that here too it is plain that monarchy
is the best government. Lastly, to sum up all in a word, whence, I
ask, was it that we got the freedom which we enjoy?- did democracy
give it us, or oligarchy, or a monarch? As a single man recovered
our freedom for us, my sentence is that we keep to the rule of one.
Even apart from this, we ought not to change the laws of our forefathers
when they work fairly; for to do so is not well."
Such were the three opinions brought forward at this meeting; the
four other Persians voted in favour of the last. Otanes, who wished
to give his countrymen a democracy, when he found the decision against
him, arose a second time, and spoke thus before the assembly:- "Brother
conspirators, it is plain that the king who is to be chosen will be
one of ourselves, whether we make the choice by casting lots for the
prize, or by letting the people decide which of us they will have
to rule over them, in or any other way. Now, as I have neither a mind
to rule nor to be ruled, I shall not enter the lists with you in this
matter. I withdraw, however, on one condition- none of you shall claim
to exercise rule over me or my seed for ever." The six agreed to these
terms, and Otanes withdraw and stood aloof from the contest. And still
to this day the family of Otanes continues to be the only free family
in Persia; those who belong to it submit to the rule of the king only
so far as they themselves choose; they are bound, however, to observe
the laws of the land like the other Persians.
After this the six took counsel together, as to the fairest way of
setting up a king: and first, with respect to Otanes, they resolved,
that if any of their own number got the kingdom, Otanes and his seed
after him should receive year by year, as a mark of special honour,
a Median robe, and all such other gifts as are accounted the most
honourable in Persia. And these they resolved to give him, because
he was the man who first planned the outbreak, and who brought the
seven together. These privileges, therefore, were assigned specially
to Otanes. The following were made common to them all:- It was to
be free to each, whenever he pleased, to enter the palace unannounced,
unless the king were in the company of one of his wives; and the king
was to be bound to marry into no family excepting those of the conspirators.
Concerning the appointment of a king, the resolve to which they came
was the following:- They would ride out together next morning into
the skirts of the city, and he whose steed first neighed after the
sun was up should have the kingdom.
Now Darius had a groom, a sharp-witted knave, called Oebares. After
the meeting had broken up, Darius sent for him, and said, "Oebares,
this is the way in which the king is to be chosen- we are to mount
our horses, and the man whose horse first neighs after the sun is
up is to have the kingdom. If then you have any cleverness, contrive
a plan whereby the prize may fall to us, and not go to another." "Truly,
master," Oebares answered, "if it depends on this whether thou shalt
be king or no, set thine heart at ease, and fear nothing: I have a
charm which is sure not to fail." "If thou hast really aught of the
kind," said Darius, "hasten to get it ready. The matter does not brook
delay, for the trial is to be to-morrow." So Oebares when he heard
that, did as follows:- When night came, he took one of the mares,
the chief favourite of the horse which Darius rode, and tethering
it in the suburb, brought his master's horse to the place; then, after
leading him round and round the mare several times, nearer and nearer
at each circuit, he ended by letting them come together.
And now, when the morning broke, the six Persians, according to agreement,
met together on horseback, and rode out to the suburb. As they went
along they neared the spot where the mare was tethered the night before,
whereupon the horse of Darius sprang forward and neighed. just at
the same time, though the sky was clear and bright, there was a flash
of lightning, followed by a thunderclap. It seemed as if the heavens
conspired with Darius, and hereby inaugurated him king: so the five
other nobles leaped with one accord from their steeds, and bowed down
before him and owned him for their king.
This is the account which some of the Persians gave of the contrivance
of Oebares; but there are others who relate the matter differently.
They say that in the morning he stroked the mare with his hand, which
he then hid in his trousers until the sun rose and the horses were
about to start, when he suddenly drew his hand forth and put it to
the nostrils of his master's horse, which immediately snorted and
neighed.
Thus was Darius, son of Hystaspes, appointed king; and, except the
Arabians, all they of Asia were subject to him; for Cyrus, and after
him Cambyses, had brought them all under. The Arabians were never
subject as slaves to the Persians, but had a league of friendship
with them from the time when they brought Cambyses on his way as he
went into Egypt; for had they been unfriendly the Persians could never
have made their invasion.
And now Darius contracted marriages of the first rank, according to
the notions of the Persians: to wit, with two daughters of Cyrus,
Atossa and Artystone; of whom, Atossa had been twice married before,
once to Cambyses, her brother, and once to the Magus, while the other,
Artystone, was a virgin. He married also Parmys, daughter of Smerdis,
son of Cyrus; and he likewise took to wife the daughter of Otanes,
who had made the discovery about the Magus. And now when his power
was established firmly throughout all the kingdoms, the first thing
that he did was to set up a carving in stone, which showed a man mounted
upon a horse, with an inscription in these words following:- "Darius,
son of Hystaspes, by aid of his good horse" (here followed the horse's
name), "and of his good groom Oebares, got himself the kingdom of
the Persians."
This he set up in Persia; and afterwards he proceeded to establish
twenty governments of the kind which the Persians call satrapies,
assigning to each its governor, and fixing the tribute which was to
be paid him by the several nations. And generally he joined together
in one satrapy the nations that were neighbours, but sometimes he
passed over the nearer tribes, and put in their stead those which
were more remote. The following is an account of these governments,
and of the yearly tribute which they paid to the king:- Such as brought
their tribute in silver were ordered to pay according to the Babylonian
talent; while the Euboic was the standard measure for such as brought
gold. Now the Babylonian talent contains seventy Euboic minae. During
all the reign of Cyrus, and afterwards when Cambyses ruled, there
were no fixed tributes, but the nations severally brought gifts to
the king. On account of this and other like doings, the Persians say
that Darius was a huckster, Cambyses a master, and Cyrus a father;
for Darius looked to making a gain in everything; Cambyses was harsh
and reckless; while Cyrus was gentle, and procured them all manner
of goods.
The Ionians, the Magnesians of Asia, the Aeolians, the Carians, the
Lycians, the Milyans, and the Pamphylians, paid their tribute in a
single sum, which was fixed at four hundred talents of silver. These
formed together the first satrapy.
The Mysians, Lydians, Lasonians, Cabalians, and Hygennians paid the
sum of five hundred talents. This was the second satrapy.
The Hellespontians, of the right coast as one enters the straits,
the Phrygians, the Asiatic Thracians, the Paphlagonians, the Mariandynians'
and the Syrians paid a tribute of three hundred and sixty talents.
This was the third satrapy.
The Cilicians gave three hundred and sixty white horses, one for each
day in the year, and five hundred talents of silver. Of this sum one
hundred and forty talents went to pay the cavalry which guarded the
country, while the remaining three hundred and sixty were received
by Darius. This was the fourth satrapy.
The country reaching from the city of Posideium (built by Amphilochus,
son of Amphiaraus, on the confines of Syria and Cilicia) to the borders
of Egypt, excluding therefrom a district which belonged to Arabia
and was free from tax, paid a tribute of three hundred and fifty talents.
All Phoenicia, Palestine Syria, and Cyprus, were herein contained.
This was the fifth satrapy.
From Egypt, and the neighbouring parts of Libya, together with the
towns of Cyrene and Barca, which belonged to the Egyptian satrapy,
the tribute which came in was seven hundred talents. These seven hundred
talents did not include the profits of the fisheries of Lake Moeris,
nor the corn furnished to the troops at Memphis. Corn was supplied
to 120,000 Persians, who dwelt at Memphis in the quarter called the
White Castle, and to a number of auxiliaries. This was the sixth satrapy.
The Sattagydians, the Gandarians, the Dadicae, and the Aparytae, who
were all reckoned together, paid a tribute of a hundred and seventy
talents. This was the seventh satrapy.
Susa, and the other parts of Cissia, paid three hundred talents. This
was the eighth satrapy.
From Babylonia, and the rest of Assyria, were drawn a thousand talents
of silver, and five hundred boy-eunuchs. This was the ninth satrapy.
Agbatana, and the other parts of Media, together with the Paricanians
and Orthocorybantes, paid in all four hundred and fifty talents. This
was the tenth satrapy.
The Caspians, Pausicae, Pantimathi, and Daritae, were joined in one
government, and paid the sum of two hundred talents. This was the
eleventh satrapy.
From the Bactrian tribes as far as the Aegli the tribute received
was three hundred and sixty talents. This was the twelfth satrapy.
From Pactyica, Armenia, and the countries reaching thence to the Euxine,
the sum drawn was four hundred talents. This was the thirteenth satrapy.
The Sagartians, Sarangians, Thamanaeans, Utians, and Mycians, together
with the inhabitants of the islands in the Erythraean sea, where the
king sends those whom he banishes, furnished altogether a tribute
of six hundred talents. This was the fourteenth satrapy.
The Sacans and Caspians gave two hundred and fifty talents. This was
the fifteenth satrapy.
The Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians, and Arians, gave three hundred.
This was the sixteenth satrapy.
The Paricanians and Ethiopians of Asia furnished a tribute of four
hundred talents. This was the seventeenth satrapy.
The Matienians, Saspeires, and Alarodians were rated to pay two hundred
talents. This was the eighteenth satrapy.
The Moschi, Tibareni, Macrones, Mosynoeci, and Mares had to pay three
hundred talents. This was the nineteenth satrapy.
The Indians, who are more numerous than any other nation with which
we are acquainted, paid a tribute exceeding that of every other people,
to wit, three hundred and sixty talents of gold-dust. This was the
twentieth satrapy.
If the Babylonian money here spoken of be reduced to the Euboic scale,
it will make nine thousand five hundred and forty such talents; and
if the gold be reckoned at thirteen times the worth of silver, the
Indian gold-dust will come to four thousand six hundred and eighty
talents. Add these two amounts together and the whole revenue which
came in to Darius year by year will be found to be in Euboic money
fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty talents, not to mention parts
of a talent.
Such was the revenue which Darius derived from Asia and a small part
of Libya. Later in his reign the sum was increased by the tribute
of the islands, and of the nations of Europe as far as Thessaly. The
Great King stores away the tribute which he receives after this fashion-
he melts it down, and, while it is in a liquid state, runs it into
earthen vessels, which are afterwards removed, leaving the metal in
a solid mass. When money is wanted, he coins as much of this bullion
as the occasion requires.
Such then were the governments, and such the amounts of tribute at
which they were assessed respectively. Persia alone has not been reckoned
among the tributaries- and for this reason, because the country of
the Persians is altogether exempt from tax. The following peoples
paid no settled tribute, but brought gifts to the king: first, the
Ethiopians bordering upon Egypt, who were reduced by Cambyses when
he made war on the long-lived Ethiopians, and who dwell about the
sacred city of Nysa, and have festivals in honour of Bacchus. The
grain on which they and their next neighbours feed is the same as
that used by the Calantian Indians. Their dwelling-houses are under
ground. Every third year these two nations brought- and they still
bring to my day- two choenices of virgin gold, two hundred logs of
ebony, five Ethiopian boys, and twenty elephant tusks. The Colchians,
and the neighbouring tribes who dwell between them and the Caucasus-
for so far the Persian rule reaches, while north of the Caucasus no
one fears them any longer- undertook to furnish a gift, which in my
day was still brought every fifth year, consisting of a hundred boys,
and the same number of maidens. The Arabs brought every year a thousand
talents of frankincense. Such were the gifts which the king received
over and above the tribute-money.
The way in which the Indians get the plentiful supply of gold which
enables them to furnish year by year so vast an amount of gold-dust
to the kind is the following:- eastward of India lies a tract which
is entirely sand. Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia, concerning
whom anything certain is known, the Indians dwell the nearest to the
east, and the rising of the sun. Beyond them the whole country is
desert on account of the sand. The tribes of Indians are numerous,
and do not all speak the same language- some are wandering tribes,
others not. They who dwell in the marshes along the river live on
raw fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed out
of a single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they
cut in the river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and
wear it as we wear a breast-plate.
Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called Padaeans, who
are wanderers, and live on raw flesh. This tribe is said to have the
following customs:- If one of their number be ill, man or woman, they
take the sick person, and if he be a man, the men of his acquaintance
proceed to put him to death, because, they say, his flesh would be
spoilt for them if he pined and wasted away with sickness. The man
protests he is not ill in the least; but his friends will not accept
his denial- in spite of all he can say, they kill him, and feast themselves
on his body. So also if a woman be sick, the women, who are her friends,
take her and do with her exactly the same as the men. If one of them
reaches to old age, about which there is seldom any question, as commonly
before that time they have had some disease or other, and so have
been put to death- but if a man, notwithstanding, comes to be old,
then they offer him in sacrifice to their gods, and afterwards eat
his flesh.
There is another set of Indians whose customs are very different.
They refuse to put any live animal to death, they sow no corn, and
have no dwelling-houses. Vegetables are their only food. There is
a plant which grows wild in their country, bearing seed, about the
size of millet-seed, in a calyx: their wont is to gather this seed
and having boiled it, calyx and all, to use it for food. If one of
them is attacked with sickness, he goes forth into the wilderness,
and lies down to die; no one has the least concern either for the
sick or for the dead.
All the tribes which I have mentioned live together like the brute
beasts: they have also all the same tint of skin, which approaches
that of the Ethiopians. Their country is a long way from Persia towards
the south: nor had king Darius ever any authority over them.
Besides these, there are Indians of another tribe, who border on the
city of Caspatyrus, and the country of Pactyica; these people dwell
northward of all the rest of the Indians, and follow nearly the same
mode of life as the Bactrians. They are more warlike than any of the
other tribes, and from them the men are sent forth who go to procure
the gold. For it is in this part of India that the sandy desert lies.
Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand great ants, in size
somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes. The Persian king has
a number of them, which have been caught by the hunters in the land
whereof we are speaking. Those ants make their dwellings under ground,
and like the Greek ants, which they very much resemble in shape, throw
up sand-heaps as they burrow. Now the sand which they throw up is
full of gold. The Indians, when they go into the desert to collect
this sand, take three camels and harness them together, a female in
the middle and a male on either side, in a leading-rein. The rider
sits on the female, and they are particular to choose for the purpose
one that has but just dropped her young; for their female camels can
run as fast as horses, while they bear burthens very much better.
As the Greeks are well acquainted with the shape of the camel, I shall
not trouble to describe it; but I shall mention what seems to have
escaped their notice. The camel has in its hind legs four thigh-bones
and four knee-joints.
When the Indians therefore have thus equipped themselves they set
off in quest of the gold, calculating the time so that they may be
engaged in seizing it during the most sultry part of the day, when
the ants hide themselves to escape the heat. The sun in those parts
shines fiercest in the morning, not, as elsewhere, at noonday; the
greatest heat is from the time when he has reached a certain height,
until the hour at which the market closes. During this space he burns
much more furiously than at midday in Greece, so that the men there
are said at that time to drench themselves with water. At noon his
heat is much the same in India as in other countries, after which,
as the day declines, the warmth is only equal to that of the morning
sun elsewhere. Towards evening the coolness increases, till about
sunset it becomes very cold.
When the Indians reach the place where the gold is, they fill their
bags with the sand, and ride away at their best speed: the ants, however,
scenting them, as the Persians say, rush forth in pursuit. Now these
animals are, they declare, so swift, that there is nothing in the
world like them: if it were not, therefore, that the Indians get a
start while the ants are mustering, not a single gold-gatherer could
escape. During the flight the male camels, which are not so fleet
as the females, grow tired, and begin to drag, first one, and then
the other; but the females recollect the young which they have left
behind, and never give way or flag. Such, according to the Persians,
is the manner in which the Indians get the greater part of their gold;
some is dug out of the earth, but of this the supply is more scanty.
It seems as if the extreme regions of the earth were blessed by nature
with the most excellent productions, just in the same way that Greece
enjoys a climate more excellently tempered than any other country.
In India, which, as I observed lately, is the furthest region of the
inhabited world towards the east, all the four-footed beasts and the
birds are very much bigger than those found elsewhere, except only
the horses, which are surpassed by the Median breed called the Nisaean.
Gold too is produced there in vast abundance, some dug from the earth,
some washed down by the rivers, some carried off in the mode which
I have but now described. And further, there are trees which grow
wild there, the fruit whereof is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness
that of sheep. The natives make their clothes of this tree-wool.
Arabia is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is
the only country which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon,
and ledanum. The Arabians do not get any of these, except the myrrh,
without trouble. The frankincense they procure by means of the gum
styrax, which the Greeks obtain from the Phoenicians; this they burn,
and thereby obtain the spice. For the trees which bear the frankincense
are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of varied colours,
whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are of the same kind
as the serpents that invade Egypt; and there is nothing but the smoke
of the styrax which will drive them from the trees.
The Arabians say that the whole world would swarm with these serpents,
if they were not kept in check in the way in which I know that vipers
are. Of a truth Divine Providence does appear to be, as indeed one
might expect beforehand, a wise contriver. For timid animals which
are a prey to others are all made to produce young abundantly, that
so the species may not be entirely eaten up and lost; while savage
and noxious creatures are made very unfruitful. The hare, for instance,
which is hunted alike by beasts, birds, and men, breeds so abundantly
as even to superfetate, a thing which is true of no other animal.
You find in a hare's belly, at one and the same time, some of the
young all covered with fur, others quite naked, others again just
fully formed in the womb, while the hare perhaps has lately conceived
afresh. The lioness, on the other hand, which is one of the strongest
and boldest of brutes, brings forth young but once in her lifetime,
and then a single cub; she cannot possibly conceive again, since she
loses her womb at the same time that she drops her young. The reason
of this is that as soon as the cub begins to stir inside the dam,
his claws, which are sharper than those of any other animal, scratch
the womb; as the time goes on, and he grows bigger, he tears it ever
more and more; so that at last, when the birth comes, there is not
a morsel in the whole womb that is sound.
Now with respect to the vipers and the winged snakes of Arabia, if
they increased as fast as their nature would allow, impossible were
it for man to maintain himself upon the earth. Accordingly it is found
that when the male and female come together, at the very moment of
impregnation, the female seizes the male by the neck, and having once
fastened, cannot be brought to leave go till she has bit the neck
entirely through. And so the male perishes; but after a while he is
revenged upon the female by means of the young, which, while still
unborn, gnaw a passage through the womb, and then through the belly
of their mother, and so make their entrance into the world. Contrariwise,
other snakes, which are harmless, lay eggs, and hatch a vast number
of young. Vipers are found in all parts of the world, but the winged
serpents are nowhere seen except in Arabia, where they are all congregated
together. This makes them appear so numerous.
Such, then, is the way in which the Arabians obtain their frankincense;
their manner of collecting the cassia is the following:- They cover
all their body and their face with the hides of oxen and other skins,
leaving only holes for the eyes, and thus protected go in search of
the cassia, which grows in a lake of no great depth. All round the
shores and in the lake itself there dwell a number of winged animals,
much resembling bats, which screech horribly, and are very valiant.
These creatures they must keep from their eyes all the while that
they gather the cassia.
Still more wonderful is the mode in which they collect the cinnamon.
Where the wood grows, and what country produces it, they cannot tell-
only some, following probability, relate that it comes from the country
in which Bacchus was brought up. Great birds, they say, bring the
sticks which we Greeks, taking the word from the Phoenicians, call
cinnamon, and carry them up into the air to make their nests. These
are fastened with a sort of mud to a sheer face of rock, where no
foot of man is able to climb. So the Arabians, to get the cinnamon,
use the following artifice. They cut all the oxen and asses and beasts
of burthen that die in their land into large pieces, which they carry
with them into those regions, and Place near the nests: then they
withdraw to a distance, and the old birds, swooping down, seize the
pieces of meat and fly with them up to their nests; which, not being
able to support the weight, break off and fall to the ground. Hereupon
the Arabians return and collect the cinnamon, which is afterwards
carried from Arabia into other countries.
Ledanum, which the Arabs call ladanum, is procured in a yet stranger
fashion. Found in a most inodorous place, it is the sweetest-scented
of all substances. It is gathered from the beards of he-goats, where
it is found sticking like gum, having come from the bushes on which
they browse. It is used in many sorts of unguents, and is what the
Arabs burn chiefly as incense.
Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole country
is scented with them, and exhales an odour marvellously sweet. There
are also in Arabia two kinds of sheep worthy of admiration, the like
of which is nowhere else to be seen; the one kind has long tails,
not less than three cubits in length, which, if they were allowed
to trail on the ground, would be bruised and fall into sores. As it
is, all the shepherds know enough of carpentering to make little trucks
for their sheep's tails. The trucks are placed under the tails, each
sheep having one to himself, and the tails are then tied down upon
them. The other kind has a broad tail, which is a cubit across sometimes.
Where the south declines towards the setting sun lies the country
called Ethiopia, the last inhabited land in that direction. There
gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants abound, with wild
trees of all sorts, and ebony; and the men are taller, handsomer,
and longer lived than anywhere else.
Now these are the farthest regions of the world in Asia and Libya.
Of the extreme tracts of Europe towards the west I cannot speak with
any certainty; for I do not allow that there is any river, to which
the barbarians give the name of Eridanus, emptying itself into the
northern sea, whence (as the tale goes) amber is procured; nor do
I know of any islands called the Cassiterides (Tin Islands), whence
the tin comes which we use. For in the first place the name Eridanus
is manifestly not a barbarian word at all, but a Greek name, invented
by some poet or other; and secondly, though I have taken vast pains,
I have never been able to get an assurance from an eye-witness that
there is any sea on the further side of Europe. Nevertheless, tin
and amber do certainly come to us from the ends of the earth.
The northern parts of Europe are very much richer in gold than any
other region: but how it is procured I have no certain knowledge.
The story runs that the one-eyed Arimaspi purloin it from the griffins;
but here too I am incredulous, and cannot persuade myself that there
is a race of men born with one eye, who in all else resemble the rest
of mankind. Nevertheless it seems to be true that the extreme regions
of the earth, which surround and shut up within themselves all other
countries, produce the things which are the rarest, and which men
reckon the most beautiful.
There is a plain in Asia which is shut in on all sides by a mountain-range,
and in this mountain-range are five openings. The plain lies on the
confines of the Chorasmians, Hyrcanians, Parthians, Sarangians, and
Thamanaeans, and belonged formerly to the first-mentioned of those
peoples. Ever since the Persians, however, obtained the mastery of
Asia, it has been the property of the Great King. A mighty river,
called the Aces, flows from the hills inclosing the plain; and this
stream, formerly splitting into five channels, ran through the five
openings in the hills, and watered the lands of the five nations which
dwell around. The Persian came, however, and conquered the region,
and then it went ill with the people of these lands. The Great King
blocked up all the passages between the hills with dykes and flood
gates, and so prevented the water from flowing out. Then the plain
within the hills became a sea, for the river kept rising, and the
water could find no outlet. From that time the five nations which
were wont formerly to have the use of the stream, losing their accustomed
supply of water, have been in great distress. In winter, indeed, they
have rain from heaven like the rest of the world, but in summer, after
sowing their millet and their sesame, they always stand in need of
water from the river. When, therefore, they suffer from this want,
hastening to Persia, men and women alike, they take their station
at the gate of the king's palace, and wail aloud. Then the king orders
the flood-gates to be opened towards the country whose need is greatest,
and lets the soil drink until it has had enough; after which the gates
on this side are shut, and others are unclosed for the nation which,
of the remainder, needs it most. It has been told me that the king
never gives the order to open the gates till the suppliants have paid
him a large sum of money over and above the tribute.
Of the seven Persians who rose up against the Magus, one, Intaphernes,
lost his life very shortly after the outbreak, for an act of insolence.
He wished to enter the palace and transact a certain business with
the king. Now the law was that all those who had taken part in the
rising against the Magus might enter unannounced into the king's presence,
unless he happened to be in private with his wife. So Intaphernes
would not have any one announce him, but, as he belonged to the seven,
claimed it as his right to go in. The doorkeeper, however, and the
chief usher forbade his entrance, since the king, they said, was with
his wife. But Intaphernes thought they told lies; so, drawing his
scymitar, he cut off their noses and their ears, and, hanging them
on the bridle of his horse, put the bridle round their necks, and
so let them go.
Then these two men went and showed themselves to the king, and told
him how it had come to pass that they were thus treated. Darius trembled
lest it was by the common consent of the six that the deed had been
done; he therefore sent for them all in turn, and sounded them to
know if they approved the conduct of Intaphernes. When he found by
their answers that there had been no concert between him and them,
he laid hands on Intaphernes, his children, and all his near kindred;
strongly suspecting that he and his friends were about to raise a
revolt. When all had been seized and put in chains, as malefactors
condemned to death, the wife of Intaphernes came and stood continually
at the palace-gates, weeping and wailing sore. So Darius after a while,
seeing that she never ceased to stand and weep, was touched with pity
for her, and bade a messenger go to her and say, "Lady, king Darius
gives thee as a boon the life of one of thy kinsmen- choose which
thou wilt of the prisoners." Then she pondered awhile before she answered,
"If the king grants me the life of one alone, I make choice of my
brother." Darius, when he heard the reply, was astonished, and sent
again, saying, "Lady, the king bids thee tell him why it is that thou
passest by thy husband and thy children, and preferrest to have the
life of thy brother spared. He is not so near to thee as thy children,
nor so dear as thy husband." She answered, "O king, if the gods will,
I may have another husband and other children when these are gone.
But as my father and my mother are no more, it is impossible that
I should have another brother. This was my thought when I asked to
have my brother spared." Then it seemed to Darius that the lady spoke
well, and he gave her, besides the life that she had asked, the life
also of her eldest son, because he was greatly pleased with her. But
he slew all the rest. Thus one of the seven died, in the way I have
described, very shortly after the insurrection.
About the time of Cambyses' last sickness, the following events happened.
There was a certain Oroetes, a Persian, whom Cyrus had made governor
of Sardis. This man conceived a most unholy wish. He had never suffered
wrong or had an ill word from Polycrates the Samian- nay, he had not
so much as seen him in all his life; yet, notwithstanding, he conceived
the wish to seize him and put him to death. This wish, according to
the account which the most part give, arose from what happened one
day as he was sitting with another Persian in the gate of the king's
palace. The man's name was Mitrobates, and he was ruler of the satrapy
of Dascyleium. He and Oroetes had been talking together, and from
talking they fell to quarrelling and comparing their merits; whereupon
Mitrobates said to Oroetes reproachfully, "Art thou worthy to be called
a man, when, near as Samos lies to thy government, and easy as it
is to conquer, thou hast omitted to bring it under the dominion of
the king? Easy to conquer, said I? Why, a mere common citizen, with
the help of fifteen men-at-arms, mastered the island, and is still
king of it." Oroetes, they say, took this reproach greatly to heart;
but, instead of seeking to revenge himself on the man by whom it was
uttered, he conceived the desire of destroying Polycrates, since it
was on Polycrates' account that the reproach had fallen on him.
Another less common version of the story is that Oroetes sent a herald
to Samos to make a request, the nature of which is not stated; Polycrates
was at the time reclining in the apartment of the males, and Anacreon
the Teian was with him; when therefore the herald came forward to
converse, Polycrates, either out of studied contempt for the power
of Oroetes, or it may be merely by chance, was lying with his face
turned away towards the wall; and so he lay all the time that the
herald spake, and when he ended, did not even vouchsafe him a word.
Such are the two reasons alleged for the death of Polycrates; it is
open to all to believe which they please. What is certain is that
Oroetes, while residing at Magnesia on the Maeander, sent a Lydian,
by name Myrsus, the son of Gyges, with a message to Polycrates at
Samos, well knowing what that monarch designed. For Polycrates entertained
a design which no other Greek, so far as we know, ever formed before
him, unless it were Minos the Cnossian, and those (if there were any
such) who had the mastery of the Egaean at an earlier time- Polycrates,
I say, was the first of mere human birth who conceived the design
of gaining the empire of the sea, and aspired to rule over Ionia and
the islands. Knowing then that Polycrates was thus minded, Oroetes
sent his message, which ran as follows:-
"Oroetes to Polycrates thus sayeth: I hear thou raisest thy thoughts
high, but thy means are not equal to thy ambition. Listen then to
my words, and learn how thou mayest at once serve thyself and preserve
me. King Cambyses is bent on my destruction- of this I have warning
from a sure hand. Come thou, therefore, and fetch me away, me and
all my wealth- share my wealth with me, and then, so far as money
can aid, thou mayest make thyself master of the whole of Greece. But
if thou doubtest of my wealth, send the trustiest of thy followers,
and I will show my treasures to him."
Polycrates, when he heard this message, was full of joy, and straightway
approved the terms; but, as money was what he chiefly desired, before
stirring in the business he sent his secretary, Maeandrius, son of
Maeandrius, a Samian, to look into the matter. This was the man who,
not very long afterwards, made an offering at the temple of Juno of
all the furniture which had adorned the male apartments in the palace
of Polycrates, an offering well worth seeing. Oroetes learning that
one was coming to view his treasures, contrived as follows:- he filled
eight great chests almost brimful of stones, and then covering over
the stones with gold, corded the chests, and so held them in readiness.
When Maeandrius arrived, he was shown this as Oroetes' treasure, and
having seen it returned to Samos.
On hearing his account, Polycrates, notwithstanding many warnings
given him by the soothsayers, and much dissuasion of his friends,
made ready to go in person. Even the dream which visited his daughter
failed to check him. She had dreamed that she saw her father hanging
high in air, washed by love, and anointed by the sun. Having therefore
thus dreamed, she used every effort to prevent her father from going;
even as he went on board his penteconter crying after him with words
of evil omen. Then Polycrates threatened her that, if he returned
in safety, he would keep her unmarried many years. She answered, "Oh!
that he might perform his threat; far better for her to remain long
unmarried than to be bereft of her father!"
Polycrates, however, making light of all the counsel offered him,
set sail and went to Oroetes. Many friends accompanied him; among
the rest, Democedes, the son of Calliphon, a native of Crotona, who
was a physician, and the best skilled in his art of all men then living.
Polycrates, on his arrival at Magnesia, perished miserably, in a way
unworthy of his rank and of his lofty schemes. For, if we except the
Syracusans, there has never been one of the Greek tyrants who was
to be compared with Polycrates for magnificence. Oroetes, however,
slew him in a mode which is not fit to be described, and then hung
his dead body upon a cross. His Samian followers Oroetes let go free,
bidding them thank him that they were allowed their liberty; the rest,
who were in part slaves, in part free foreigners, he alike treated
as his slaves by conquest. Then was the dream of the daughter of Polycrates
fulfilled; for Polycrates, as he hung upon the cross, and rain fell
on him, was washed by Jupiter; and he was anointed by the sun, when
his own moisture overspread his body. And so the vast good fortune
of Polycrates came at last to the end which Amasis the Egyptian king
had prophesied in days gone by.
It was not long before retribution for the murder of Polycrates overtook
Oroetes. After the death of Cambyses, and during all the time that
the Magus sat upon the throne, Oroetes remained in Sardis, and brought
no help to the Persians, whom the Medes had robbed of the sovereignty.
On the contrary, amid the troubles of this season, he slew Mitrobates,
the satrap of Dascyleium, who had cast the reproach upon him in the
matter of Polycrates; and he slew also Mitrobates's son, Cranaspes-
both men of high repute among the Persians. He was likewise guilty
of many other acts of insolence; among the rest, of the following:-
there was a courier sent to him by Darius whose message was not to
his mind- Oroetes had him waylaid and murdered on his road back to
the king; the man and his horse both disappeared, and no traces were
left of either.
Darius therefore was no sooner settled upon the throne than he longed
to take vengeance upon Oroetes for all his misdoings, and especially
for the murder of Mitrobates and his son. To send an armed force openly
against him, however, he did not think advisable, as the whole kingdom
was still unsettled, and he too was but lately come to the throne,
while Oroetes, as he understood, had a great power. In truth a thousand
Persians attended on him as a bodyguard, and he held the satrapies
of Phrygia, Lydia, and Ionia. Darius therefore proceeded by artifice.
He called together a meeting of all the chief of the Persians, and
thus addressed them:- "Who among you, O Persians, will undertake to
accomplish me a matter by skill without force or tumult? Force is
misplaced where the work wants skilful management. Who, then, will
undertake to bring me Oroetes alive, or else to kill him? He never
did the Persians any good in his life, and he has wrought us abundant
injury. Two of our number, Mitrobates and his son, he has slain; and
when messengers go to recall him, even though they have their mandate
from me, with an insolence which is not to be endured, he puts them
to death. We must kill this man, therefore, before he does the Persians
any greater hurt."
Thus spoke Darius; and straightway thirty of those present came forward
and offered themselves for the work. As they strove together, Darius
interfered, and bade them have recourse to the lot. Accordingly lots
were cast, and the task fell to Bagaeus, son of Artontes. Then Bagaeus
caused many letters to be written on divers matters, and sealed them
all with the king's signet; after which he took the letters with him,
and departed for Sardis. On his arrival he was shown into the presence
of Oroetes, when he uncovered the letters one by one, and giving them
to the king's secretary- every satrap has with him a king's secretary-
commanded him to read their contents. Herein his design was to try
the fidelity of the bodyguard, and to see if they would be likely
to fall away from Oroetes. When therefore he saw that they showed
the letters all due respect, and even more highly reverenced their
contents, he gave the secretary a paper in which was written, "Persians,
king Darius forbids you to guard Oroetes." The soldiers at these words
laid aside their spears. So Bagaeus, finding that they obeyed this
mandate, took courage, and gave into the secretary's hands the last
letter, wherein it was written, "King Darius commands the Persians
who are in Sardis to kill Oroetes." Then the guards drew their swords
and slew him upon the spot. Thus did retribution for the murder of
Polycrates the Samian overtake Oroetes the Persian.
Soon after the treasures of Oroetes had been conveyed to Sardis it
happened that king Darius, as he leaped from his horse during the
chase, sprained his foot. The sprain was one of no common severity,
for the ankle-bone was forced quite out of the socket. Now Darius
already had at his court certain Egyptians whom he reckoned the best-skilled
physicians in all the world; to their aid, therefore, he had recourse;
but they twisted the foot so clumsily, and used such violence, that
they only made the mischief greater. For seven days and seven nights
the king lay without sleep, so grievous was the pain he suffered.
On the eighth day of his indisposition, one who had heard before leaving
Sardis of the skill of Democedes the Crotoniat, told Darius, who commanded
that he should be brought with all speed into his presence. When,
therefore, they had found him among the slaves of Oroetes, quite uncared
for by any one, they brought him just as he was, clanking his fetters,
and all clothed in rags, before the king.
As soon as he was entered into the presence, Darius asked him if he
knew medicine- to which he answered "No," for he feared that if he
made himself known he would lose all chance of ever again beholding
Greece. Darius, however, perceiving that he dealt deceitfully, and
really understood the art, bade those who had brought him to the presence
go fetch the scourges and the pricking-irons. Upon this Democedes
made confession, but at the same time said, that he had no thorough
knowledge of medicine- he had but lived some time with a physician,
and in this way had gained a slight smattering of the art. However,
Darius put himself under his care, and Democedes, by using the remedies
customary among the Greeks, and exchanging the violent treatment of
the Egyptians for milder means, first enabled him to get some sleep,
and then in a very little time restored him altogether, after he had
quite lost the hope of ever having the use of his foot. Hereupon the
king presented Democedes with two sets of fetters wrought in gold;
so Democedes asked if he meant to double his sufferings because he
had brought him back to health? Darius was pleased at the speech,
and bade the eunuchs take Democedes to see his wives, which they did
accordingly, telling them all that this was the man who had saved
the king's life. Then each of the wives dipped with a saucer into
a chest of gold, and gave so bountifully to Democedes, that a slave
named Sciton, who followed him, and picked up the staters which fell
from the saucers, gathered together a great heap of gold.
This Democedes left his country and became attached to Polycrates
in the following way:- His father, who dwelt at Crotona, was a man
of a savage temper, and treated him cruelly. When, therefore, he could
no longer bear such constant ill-usage, Democedes left his home, and
sailed away to Egina. There he set up in business, and succeeded the
first year in surpassing all the best-skilled physicians of the place,
notwithstanding that he was without instruments, and had with him
none of the appliances needful for the practice of his art. In the
second year the state of Egina hired his services at the price of
a talent; in the third the Athenians engaged him at a hundred minae;
and in the fourth Polycrates at two talents. So he went to Samos,
and there took up his abode. It was in no small measure from his success
that the Crotoniats came to be reckoned such good physicians; for
about this period the physicians of Crotona had the name of being
the best, and those of Cyrene the second best, in all Greece. The
Argives, about the same time, were thought to be the first musicians
in Greece.
After Democedes had cured Darius at Susa, he dwelt there in a large
house, and feasted daily at the king's table, nor did he lack anything
that his heart desired, excepting liberty to return to his country.
By interceding for them with Darius, he saved the lives of the Egyptian
physicians who had had the care of the king before he came, when they
were about to be impaled because they had been surpassed by a Greek;
and further, he succeeded in rescuing an Elean soothsayer, who had
followed the fortunes of Polycrates, and was lying in utter neglect
among his slaves. In short there was no one who stood so high as Democedes
in the favour of the king.
Moreover, within a little while it happened that Atossa, the daughter
of Cyrus, who was married to Darius, had a boil form upon her breast,
which, after it burst, began to spread and increase. Now so long as
the sore was of no great size, she hid it through shame and made no
mention of it to any one; but when it became worse, she sent at last
for Democedes, and showed it to him. Democedes said that he would
make her well, but she must first promise him with an oath that if
he cured her she would grant him whatever request he might prefer;
assuring her at the same time that it should be nothing which she
could blush to hear.
On these terms Democedes applied his art, and soon cured the abscess;
and Atossa, when she had heard his request, spake thus one night to
Darius:-
"It seemeth to me strange, my lord, that, with the mighty power which
is thine, thou sittest idle, and neither makest any conquest, nor
advancest the power of the Persians. Methinks that one who is so young,
and so richly endowed with wealth, should perform some noble achievement
to prove to the Persians that it is a man who governs them. Another
reason, too, should urge thee to attempt some enterprise. Not only
does it befit thee to show the Persians that a man rules them, but
for thy own peace thou shouldest waste their strength in wars lest
idleness breed revolt against thy authority. Now, too, whilst thou
art still young, thou mayest well accomplish some exploit; for as
the body grows in strength the mind too ripens, and as the body ages,
the mind's powers decay, till at last it becomes dulled to everything."
So spake Atossa, as Democedes had instructed her. Darius answered:-
"Dear lady, thou hast uttered the very thoughts that occupy my brain.
I am minded to construct a bridge which shall join our continent with
the other, and so carry war into Scythia. Yet a brief space and all
will be accomplished as thou desirest."
But Atossa rejoined:- "Look now, this war with Scythia were best reserved
awhile- for the Scythians may be conquered at any time. Prithee, lead
me thy host first into Greece. I long to be served by some of those
Lacedaemonian maids of whom I have heard so much. I want also Argive,
and Athenian, and Corinthian women. There is now at the court a man
who can tell thee better than any one else in the whole world whatever
thou wouldst know concerning Greece, and who might serve thee right
well as guide; I mean him who performed the cure on thy foot."
"Dear lady," Darius answered, "since it is thy wish that we try first
the valour of the Greeks, it were best, methinks, before marching
against them, to send some Persians to spy out the land; they may
go in company with the man thou mentionest, and when they have seen
and learnt all, they can bring us back a full report. Then, having
a more perfect knowledge of them, I will begin the war."
Darius, having so spoke, put no long distance between the word and
the deed, but as soon as day broke he summoned to his presence fifteen
Persians of note, and bade them take Democedes for their guide, and
explore the sea-coasts of Greece. Above all, they were to be sure
to bring Democedes back with them, and not suffer him to run away
and escape. After he had given these orders, Darius sent for Democedes,
and besought him to serve as guide to the Persians, and when he had
shown them the whole of Greece to come back to Persia. He should take,
he said, all the valuables he possessed as presents to his father
and his brothers, and he should receive on his return a far more abundant
store. Moreover, the king added, he would give him, as his contribution
towards the presents, a merchantship laden with all manner of precious
things, which should accompany him on his voyage. Now I do not believe
that Darius, when he made these promises, had any guile in his heart:
Democedes, however, who suspected that the king spoke to try him,
took care not to snatch at the offers with any haste; but said, "he
would leave his own goods behind to enjoy upon his return- the merchant-ship
which the king proposed to grant him to carry gifts to his brothers,
that he would accept at the king's hands." So when Darius had laid
his orders upon Democedes, he sent him and the Persians away to the
coast.
The men went down to Phoenicia, to Sidon, the Phoenician town, where
straightway they fitted out two triremes and a trading-vessel, which
they loaded with all manner of precious merchandise; and, everything
being now ready, they set sail for Greece. When they had made the
land, they kept along the shore and examined it, taking notes of all
that they saw; and in this way they explored the greater portion of
the country, and all the most famous regions, until at last they reached
Tarentum in Italy. There Aristophilides, king of the Tarentines, out
of kindness to Democedes, took the rudders off the Median ships, and
detained their crews as spies. Meanwhile Democedes escaped to Crotona,
his native city, whereupon Aristophilides released the Persians from
prison, and gave their rudders back to them.
The Persians now quitted Tarentum, and sailed to Crotona in pursuit
of Democedes; they found him in the market-place, where they straightway
laid violent hands on him. Some of the Crotoniats, who greatly feared
the power of the Persians, were willing to give him up; but others
resisted, held Democedes fast, and even struck the Persians with their
walking-sticks. They, on their part, kept crying out, "Men of Crotona,
beware what you do. It is the king's runaway slave that you are rescuing.
Think you Darius will tamely submit to such an insult? Think you,
that if you carry off the man from us, it will hereafter go well with
you? Will you not rather be the first persons on whom we shall make
war? Will not your city be the first we shall seek to lead away captive?"
Thus they spake, but the Crotoniats did not heed them; they rescued
Democedes, and seized also the trading-ship which the Persians had
brought with them from Phoenicia. Thus robbed, and bereft of their
guide, the Persians gave up all hope of exploring the rest of Greece,
and set sail for Asia. As they were departing, Democedes sent to them
and begged they would inform Darius that the daughter of Milo was
allianced to him as his bride. For the name of Milo the wrestler was
in high repute with the king. My belief is, that Democedes hastened
his marriage by the payment of a large sum of money for the purpose
of showing Darius that he was a man of mark in his own country.
The Persians weighed anchor and left Crotona, but, being wrecked on
the coast of Iapygia, were made slaves by the inhabitants. From this
condition they were rescued by Gillus, a banished Tarentine, who ransomed
them at his own cost, and took them back to Darius. Darius offered
to repay this service by granting Gillus whatever boon he chose to
ask; whereupon Gillus told the king of his misfortune, and begged
to be restored to his country. Fearing, however, that he might bring
trouble on Greece if a vast armament were sent to Italy on his account,
he added that it would content him if the Cnidians undertook to obtain
his recall. Now the Cnidians were dose friends of the Tarentines,
which made him think there was no likelier means of procuring his
return. Darius promised and performed his part; for he sent messenger
to Cnidus, and commanded the Cnidians to restore Gillus. The Cnidians
did as he wished, but found themselves unable to persuade the Tarentines,
and were too weak to attempt force. Such then was the course which
this matter took. These were the first Persians who ever came from
Asia to Greece; and they were sent to spy out the land for the reason
which I have before mentioned.
After this, king Darius besieged and took Samos, which was the first
city, Greek or Barbarian, that he conquered. The cause of his making
war upon Samos was the following:- at the time when Cambyses, son
of Cyrus, marched against Egypt, vast numbers of Greeks flocked thither;
some, as might have been looked for, to push their trade; others,
to serve in his army; others again, merely to see the land: among
these last was Syloson, son of Aeaces, and brother of Polycrates,
at that time an exile from Samos. This Syloson, during his stay in
Egypt, met with a singular piece of good fortune. He happened one
day to put on a scarlet cloak, and thus attired to go into the market-place
at Memphis, when Dariuss who was one of Cambyses' bodyguard, and not
at that time a man of any account, saw him, and taking a strong liking
to the dress, went up and offered to purchase it. Syloson perceived
how anxious he was, and by a lucky inspiration answered: "There is
no price at which I would sell my cloak; but I will give it thee for
nothing, if it must needs be thine." Darius thanked him, and accepted
the garment.
Poor Syloson felt at the time that he had fooled away his cloak in
a very simple manner; but afterwards, when in the course of years
Cambyses died, and the seven Persians rose in revolt against the Magus,
and Darius was the man chosen out of the seven to have the kingdom,
Syloson learnt that the person to whom the crown had come was the
very man who had coveted his cloak in Egypt, and to whom he had freely
given it. So he made his way to Susa, and seating himself at the portal
of the royal palace, gave out that he was a benefactor of the king.
Then the doorkeeper went and told Darius. Amazed at what he heard,
king said thus within himself:- "What Greek can have been my benefactor,
or to which of them do I owe anything, so lately as I have got the
kingdom? Scarcely a man of them all has been here, not more than one
or two certainly, since I came to the throne. Nor do I remember that
I am in the debt of any Greek. However, bring him in, and let me hear
what he means by his boast." So the doorkeeper ushered Syloson into
the presence, and the interpreters asked him who he was, and what
he had done that he should call himself a benefactor of the king.
Then Syloson told the whole story of the cloak, and said that it was
he who had made Darius the present. Hereupon Darius exclaimed, "Oh!
thou most generous of men, art thou indeed he who, when I had no power
at all, gavest me something, albeit little? Truly the favour is as
great as a very grand present would be nowadays. I will therefore
give thee in return gold and silver without stint, that thou mayest
never repent of having rendered a service to Darius, son of Hystaspes.
"Give me not, O king," replied Syloson, "either silver or gold, but
recover me Samos, my native land, and let that be thy gift to me.
It belongs now to a slave of ours, who, when Oroetes put my brother
Polycrates to death, became its master. Give me Samos, I beg; but
give it unharmed, with no bloodshed- no leading into captivity."
When he heard this, Darius sent off an army, under Otanes, one of
the seven, with orders to accomplish all that Syloson had desired.
And Otanes went down to the coast and made ready to cross over.
The government of Samos was held at this time by Maeandrius, son of
Maeandrius, whom Polycrates had appointed as his deputy. This person
conceived the wish to act like the justest of men, but it was not
allowed him to do so. On receiving tidings of the death of Polycrates,
he forthwith raised an altar to love the Protector of Freedom, and
assigned it the piece of ground which may still be seen in the suburb.
This done, he assembled all the citizens, and spoke to them as follows:-
"Ye know, friends, that the sceptre of Polycrates, and all his power,
has passed into my hands, and if I choose I may rule over you. But
what I condemn in another I will, if I may, avoid myself. I never
approved the ambition of Polycrates to lord it over men as good as
himself, nor looked with favour on any of those who have done the
like. Now therefore, since he has fulfilled his destiny, I lay down
my office, and proclaim equal rights. All that I claim in return is
six talents from the treasures of Polycrates, and the priesthood of
Jove the Protector of Freedom, for myself and my descendants for ever.
Allow me this, as the man by whom his temple has been built, and by
whom ye yourselves are now restored to liberty." As soon as Maeandrius
had ended, one of the Samians rose up and said, "As if thou wert fit
to rule us, base-born and rascal as thou art! Think rather of accounting
for the monies which thou hast fingered."
The man who thus spoke was a certain Telesarchus, one of the leading
citizens. Maeandrius, therefore, feeling sure that if he laid down
the sovereign power some one else would become tyrant in his room,
gave up the thought of relinquishing it. Withdrawing to the citadel,
he sent for the chief men one by one, under pretence of showing them
his accounts, and as fast as they came arrested them and put them
in irons. So these men were bound; and Maeandrius within a short time
fell sick: whereupon Lycaretus, one of his brothers, thinking that
he was going to die, and wishing to make his own accession to the
throne the easier, slew all the prisoners. It seemed that the Samians
did not choose to be a free people.
When the Persians whose business it was to restore Syloson reached
Samos, not a man was found to lift up his hand against them. Maeandrius
and his partisans expressed themselves willing to quit the island
upon certain terms, and these terms were agreed to by Otanes. After
the treaty was made, the most distinguished of the Persians had their
thrones brought, and seated themselves over against the citadel.
Now the king Maeandrius had a lightheaded brother- Charilaus by name-
whom for some offence or other he had shut up in prison: this man
heard what was going on, and peering through his bars, saw the Persians
sitting peacefully upon their seats, whereupon he exclaimed aloud,
and said he must speak with Maeandrius. When this was reported to
him, Maeandrius gave orders that Charilaus should be released from
prison and brought into his presence. No sooner did he arrive than
he began reviling and abusing his brother, and strove to persuade
him to attack the Persians. "Thou meanest-spirited of men," he said,
"thou canst keep me, thy brother, chained in a dungeon, notwithstanding
that I have done nothing worthy of bonds; but when the Persians come
and drive thee forth a houseless wanderer from thy native land, thou
lookest on, and hast not the heart to seek revenge, though they might
so easily be subdued. If thou, however, art afraid, lend me thy soldiers,
and I will make them pay dearly for their coming here. I engage too
to send thee first safe out of the island."
So spake Charilaus, and Maeandrius gave consent; not (I believe) that
he was so void of sense as to imagine that his own forces could overcome
those of the king, but because he was jealous of Syloson, and did
not wish him to get so quietly an unharmed city. He desired therefore
to rouse the anger of the Persians against Samos, that so he might
deliver it up to Syloson with its power at the lowest possible ebb;
for he knew well that if the Persians met with a disaster they would
be furious against the Samians, while he himself felt secure of a
retreat at any time that he liked, since he had a secret passage under
ground leading from the citadel to the sea. Maeandrius accordingly
took ship and sailed away from Samos; and Charilaus, having armed
all the mercenaries, threw open the gates, and fell upon the Persians,
who looked for nothing less, since they supposed that the whole matter
had been arranged by treaty. At the first onslaught therefore all
the Persians of most note, men who were in the habit of using litters,
were slain by the mercenaries; the rest of the army, however, came
to the rescue, defeated the mercenaries, and drove them back into
the citadel.
Then Otanes, the general, when he saw the great calamity which had
befallen the Persians, made up his mind to forget the orders which
Darius had given him, "not to kill or enslave a single Samian, but
to deliver up the island unharmed to Syloson," and gave the word to
his army that they should slay the Samians, both men and boys, wherever
they could find them. Upon this some of his troops laid siege to the
citadel, while others began the massacre, killing all they met, some
outside, some inside the temples.
Maeandrius fled from Samos to Lacedaemon, and conveyed thither all
the riches which he had brought away from the island, after which
he acted as follows. Having placed upon his board all the gold and
silver vessels that he had, and bade his servants employ themselves
in cleaning them, he himself went and entered into conversation with
Cleomenes, son of Anaxandridas, king of Sparta, and as they talked
brought him along to his house. There Cleomenes, seeing the plate,
was filled with wonder and astonishment; whereon the other begged
that he would carry home with him any of the vessels that he liked.
Maeandrius said this two or three times; but Cleomenes here displayed
surpassing honesty. He refused the gift, and thinking that if Maeandrius
made the same offers to others he would get the aid he sought, the
Spartan king went straight to the ephors and told them "it would be
best for Sparta that the Samian stranger should be sent away from
the Peloponnese; for otherwise he might perchance persuade himself
or some other Spartan to be base." The ephors took his advice, and
let Maeandrius know by a herald that he must leave the city.
Meanwhile the Persians netted Samos, and delivered it up to Syloson,
stripped of all its men. After some time, however, this same general
Otanes was induced to repeople it by a dream which he had, and a loathsome
disease that seized on him.
After the armament of Otanes had set sail for Samos, the Babylonians
revolted, having made every preparation for defence. During all the
time that the Magus was king, and while the seven were conspiring,
they had profited by the troubles, and had made themselves ready against
a siege. And it happened somehow or other that no one perceived what
they were doing. At last when the time came for rebelling openly,
they did as follows:- having first set apart their mothers, each man
chose besides out of his whole household one woman, whomsoever he
pleased; these alone were allowed to live, while all the rest were
brought to one place and strangled. The women chosen were kept to
make bread for the men; while the others were strangled that they
might not consume the stores.
When tidings reached Darius of what had happened, he drew together
all his power, and began the war by marching straight upon Babylon,
and laying siege to the place. The Babylonians, however, cared not
a whit for his siege. Mounting upon the battlements that crowned their
walls, they insulted and jeered at Darius and his mighty host. One
even shouted to them and said, "Why sit ye there, Persians? why do
ye not go back to your homes? Till mules foal ye will not take our
city." This was by a Babylonian who thought that a mule would never
foal.
Now when a year and seven months had passed, Darius and his army were
quite wearied out, finding that they could not anyhow take the city.
All stratagems and all arts had been used, and yet the king could
not prevail- not even when he tried the means by which Cyrus made
himself master of the place. The Babylonians were ever upon the watch,
and he found no way of conquering them.
At last, in the twentieth month, a marvellous thing happened to Zopyrus,
son of the Megabyzus who was among the seven men that overthrew the
Magus. One of his sumpter-mules gave birth to a foal. Zopyrus, when
they told him, not thinking that it could be true, went and saw the
colt with his own eyes; after which he commanded his servants to tell
no one what had come to pass, while he himself pondered the matter.
Calling to mind then the words of the Babylonian at the beginning
of the siege, "Till mules foal ye shall not take our city"- he thought,
as he reflected on this speech, that Babylon might now be taken. For
it seemed to him that there was a Divine Providence in the man having
used the phrase, and then his mule having foaled.
As soon therefore as he felt within himself that Babylon was fated
to be taken, he went to Darius and asked him if he set a very high
value on its conquest. When he found that Darius did indeed value
it highly, he considered further with himself how he might make the
deed his own, and be the man to take Babylon. Noble exploits in Persia
are ever highly honoured and bring their authors to greatness. He
therefore reviewed all ways of bringing the city under, but found
none by which he could hope to prevail, unless he maimed himself and
then went over to the enemy. To do this seeming to him a light matter,
he mutilated himself in a way that was utterly without remedy. For
he cut off his own nose and ears, and then, clipping his hair close
and flogging himself with a scourge, he came in this plight before
Darius.
Wrath stirred within the king at the sight of a man of his lofty rank
in such a condition; leaping down from his throne, he exclaimed aloud,
and asked Zopyrus who it was that had disfigured him, and what he
had done to be so treated. Zopyrus answered, "There is not a man in
the world, but thou, O king, that could reduce me to such a plight-
no stranger's hands have wrought this work on me, but my own only.
I maimed myself I could not endure that the Assyrians should laugh
at the Persians." "Wretched man," said Darius, "thou coverest the
foulest deed with the fairest possible name, when thou sayest thy
maiming is to help our siege forward. How will thy disfigurement,
thou simpleton, induce the enemy to yield one day the sooner? Surely
thou hadst gone out of thy mind when thou didst so misuse thyself."
"Had I told thee," rejoined the other, "what I was bent on doing,
thou wouldest not have suffered it; as it is, I kept my own counsel,
and so accomplished my plans. Now, therefore, if there be no failure
on thy part, we shall take Babylon. I will desert to the enemy as
I am, and when I get into their city I will tell them that it is by
thee I have been thus treated. I think they will believe my words,
and entrust me with a command of troops. Thou, on thy part, must wait
till the tenth day after I am entered within the town, and then place
near to the gates of Semiramis a detachment of thy army, troops for
whose loss thou wilt care little, a thousand men. Wait, after that,
seven days, and post me another detachment, two thousand strong, at
the Nineveh gates; then let twenty days pass, and at the end of that
time station near the Chaldaean gates a body of four thousand. Let
neither these nor the former troops be armed with any weapons but
their swords- those thou mayest leave them. After the twenty days
are over, bid thy whole army attack the city on every side, and put
me two bodies of Persians, one at the Belian, the other at the Cissian
gates; for I expect, that, on account of my successes, the Babylonians
will entrust everything, even the keys of their gates, to me. Then
it will be for me and my Persians to do the rest."
Having left these instructions, Zopyrus fled towards the gates of
the town, often looking back, to give himself the air of a deserter.
The men upon the towers, whose business it was to keep a lookout,
observing him, hastened down, and setting one of the gates slightly
ajar, questioned him who he was, and on what errand he had come. He
replied that he was Zopyrus, and had deserted to them from the Persians.
Then the doorkeepers, when they heard this, carried him at once before
the Magistrates. Introduced into the assembly, he began to bewail
his misfortunes, telling them that Darius had maltreated him in the
way they could see, only because he had given advice that the siege
should be raised, since there seemed no hope of taking the city. "And
now," he went on to say, "my coming to you, Babylonians, will prove
the greatest gain that you could possibly receive, while to Darius
and the Persians it will be the severest loss. Verily he by whom I
have been so mutilated shall not escape unpunished. And truly all
the paths of his counsels are known to me." Thus did Zopyrus speak.
The Babylonians, seeing a Persian of such exalted rank in so grievous
a plight, his nose and ears cut off, his body red with marks of scourging
and with blood, had no suspicion but that he spoke the truth, and
was really come to be their friend and helper. They were ready, therefore,
to grant him anything that he asked; and on his suing for a command,
they entrusted to him a body of troops, with the help of which he
proceeded to do as he had arranged with Darius. On the tenth day after
his flight he led out his detachment, and surrounding the thousand
men, whom Darius according to agreement had sent first, he fell upon
them and slew them all. Then the Babylonians, seeing that his deeds
were as brave as his words, were beyond measure pleased, and set no
bounds to their trust. He waited, however, and when the next period
agreed on had elapsed, again with a band of picked men he sallied
forth, and slaughtered the two thousand. After this second exploit,
his praise was in all mouths. Once more, however, he waited till the
interval appointed had gone by, and then leading the troops to the
place where the four thousand were, he put them also to the sword.
This last victory gave the finishing stroke to his power, and made
him all in all with the Babylonians: accordingly they committed to
him the command of their whole army, and put the keys of their city
into his hands.
Darius now, still keeping to the plan agreed upon, attacked the walls
on every side, whereupon Zopyrus played out the remainder of his stratagem.
While the Babylonians, crowding to the walls, did their best to resist
the Persian assault, he threw open the Cissian and the Belian gates,
and admitted the enemy. Such of the Babylonians as witnessed the treachery,
took refuge in the temple of Jupiter Belus; the rest, who did not
see it, kept at their posts, till at last they too learnt that they
were betrayed.
Thus was Babylon taken for the second time. Darius having become master
of the place, destroyed the wall, and tore down all the gates; for
Cyrus had done neither the one nor the other when he took Babylon.
He then chose out near three thousand of the leading citizens, and
caused them to be crucified, while he allowed the remainder still
to inhabit the city. Further, wishing to prevent the race of the Babylonians
from becoming extinct, he provided wives for them in the room of those
whom (as I explained before) they strangled, to save their stores.
These he levied from the nations bordering on Babylonia, who were
each required to send so large a number to Babylon, that in all there
were collected no fewer than fifty thousand. It is from these women
that the Babylonians of our times are sprung.
As for Zopyrus, he was considered by Darius to have surpassed, in
the greatness of his achievements, all other Persians, whether of
former or of later times, except only Cyrus- with whom no Persian
ever yet thought himself worthy to compare. Darius, as the story goes,
would often say that "he had rather Zopyrus were unmaimed, than be
master of twenty more Babylons." And he honoured Zopyrus greatly;
year by year he presented him with all the gifts which are held in
most esteem among the Persians; he gave him likewise the government
of Babylon for his life, free from tribute; and he also granted him
many other favours. Megabyzus, who held the command in Egypt against
the Athenians and their allies, was a son of this Zopyrus. And Zopyrus,
who fled from Persia to Athens, was a son of this Megabyzus.
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BOOK IV
Melpomene
After the taking of Babylon, an expedition was led by Darius into
Scythia. Asia abounding in men, and vast sums flowing into the treasury,
the desire seized him to exact vengeance from the Scyths, who had
once in days gone by invaded Media, defeated those who met them in
the field, and so begun the quarrel. During the space of eight-and-twenty
years, as I have before mentioned, the Scyths continued lords of the
whole of Upper Asia. They entered Asia in pursuit of the Cimmerians,
and overthrew the empire of the Medes, who till they came possessed
the sovereignty. On their return to their homes after the long absence
of twenty-eight years, a task awaited them little less troublesome
than their struggle with the Medes. They found an army of no small
size prepared to oppose their entrance. For the Scythian women, when
they saw that time went on, and their husbands did not come back,
had intermarried with their slaves.
Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them in preparing
their milk. The plan they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone,
not unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of the mare, and then to
blow into the tubes with their mouths, some milking while the others
blow. They say that they do this because when the veins of the animal
are full of air, the udder is forced down. The milk thus obtained
is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves are
placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That which rises to the
top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion
is of less account. Such is the reason why the Scythians blind all
those whom they take in war; it arises from their not being tillers
of the ground, but a pastoral race.
When therefore the children sprung from these slaves and the Scythian
women grew to manhood, and understood the circumstances of their birth,
they resolved to oppose the army which was returning from Media. And,
first of all, they cut off a tract of country from the rest of Scythia
by digging a broad dyke from the Tauric mountains to the vast lake
of the Maeotis. Afterwards, when the Scythians tried to force an entrance,
they marched out and engaged them. Many battles were fought, and the
Scythians gained no advantage, until at last one of them thus addressed
the remainder: "What are we doing, Scythians? We are fighting our
slaves, diminishing our own number when we fall, and the number of
those that belong to us when they fall by our hands. Take my advice-
lay spear and bow aside, and let each man fetch his horsewhip, and
go boldly up to them. So long as they see us with arms in our hands,
they imagine themselves our equals in birth and bravery; but let them
behold us with no other weapon but the whip, and they will feel that
they are our slaves, and flee before us."
The Scythians followed this counsel, and the slaves were so astounded,
that they forgot to fight, and immediately ran away. Such was the
mode in which the Scythians, after being for a time the lords of Asia,
and being forced to quit it by the Medes, returned and settled in
their own country. This inroad of theirs it was that Darius was anxious
to avenge, and such was the purpose for which he was now collecting
an army to invade them.
According to the account which the Scythians themselves give, they
are the youngest of all nations. Their tradition is as follows. A
certain Targitaus was the first man who ever lived in their country,
which before his time was a desert without inhabitants. He was a child-
I do not believe the tale, but it is told nevertheless- of Jove and
a daughter of the Borysthenes. Targitaus, thus descended, begat three
sons, Leipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais, who was the youngest born
of the three. While they still ruled the land, there fell from the
sky four implements, all of gold- a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe,
and a drinking-cup. The eldest of the brothers perceived them first,
and approached to pick them up; when lo! as he came near, the gold
took fire, and blazed. He therefore went his way, and the second coming
forward made the attempt, but the same thing happened again. The gold
rejected both the eldest and the second brother. Last of all the youngest
brother approached, and immediately the flames were extinguished;
so he picked up the gold, and carried it to his home. Then the two
elder agreed together, and made the whole kingdom over to the youngest
born.
From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of the race called Auchatae; from
Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known as the Catiari and Traspians;
from Colaxais, the youngest, the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae. All
together they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings: the Greeks,
however, call them Scythians.
Such is the account which the Scythians give of their origin. They
add that from the time of Targitaus, their first king, to the invasion
of their country by Darius, is a period of one thousand years, neither
less nor more. The Royal Scythians guard the sacred gold with most
especial care, and year by year offer great sacrifices in its honour.
At this feast, if the man who has the custody of the gold should fall
asleep in the open air, he is sure (the Scythians say) not to outlive
the year. His pay therefore is as much land as he can ride round on
horseback in a day. As the extent of Scythia is very great, Colaxais
gave each of his three sons a separate kingdom, one of which was of
ampler size than the other two: in this the gold was preserved. Above,
to the northward of the farthest dwellers in Scythia, the country
is said to be concealed from sight and made impassable by reason of
the feathers which are shed abroad abundantly. The earth and air are
alike full of them, and this it is which prevents the eye from obtaining
any view of the region.
Such is the account which the Scythians give of themselves, and of
the country which lies above them. The Greeks who dwell about the
Pontus tell a different story. According to Hercules, when he was
carrying off the cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which is now
inhabited by the Scyths, but which was then a desert. Geryon lived
outside the Pontus, in an island called by the Greeks Erytheia, near
Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of Hercules upon the Ocean. Now
some say that the Ocean begins in the east, and runs the whole way
round the world; but they give no proof that this is really so. Hercules
came from thence into the region now called Scythia, and, being overtaken
by storm and frost, drew his lion's skin about him, and fell fast
asleep. While he slept, his mares, which he had loosed from his chariot
to graze, by some wonderful chance disappeared.
On waking, he went in quest of them, and, after wandering over the
whole country, came at last to the district called "the Woodland,"
where he found in a cave a strange being, between a maiden and a serpent,
whose form from the waist upwards was like that of a woman, while
all below was like a snake. He looked at her wonderingly; but nevertheless
inquired, whether she had chanced to see his strayed mares anywhere.
She answered him, "Yes, and they were now in her keeping; but never
would she consent to give them back, unless he took her for his mistress."
So Hercules, to get his mares back, agreed; but afterwards she put
him off and delayed restoring the mares, since she wished to keep
him with her as long as possible. He, on the other hand, was only
anxious to secure them and to get away. At last, when she gave them
up, she said to him, "When thy mares strayed hither, it was I who
saved them for thee: now thou hast paid their salvage; for lo! I bear
in my womb three sons of thine. Tell me therefore when thy sons grow
up, what must I do with them? Wouldst thou wish that I should settle
them here in this land, whereof I am mistress, or shall I send them
to thee?" Thus questioned, they say, Hercules answered, "When the
lads have grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly thou wilt not err.
Watch them, and when thou seest one of them bend this bow as I now
bend it, and gird himself with this girdle thus, choose him to remain
in the land. Those who fail in the trial, send away. Thus wilt thou
at once please thyself and obey me."
Hereupon he strung one of his bows- up to that time he had carried
two- and showed her how to fasten the belt. Then he gave both bow
and belt into her hands. Now the belt had a golden goblet attached
to its clasp. So after he had given them to her, he went his way;
and the woman, when her children grew to manhood, first gave them
severally their names. One she called Agathyrsus, one Gelonus, and
the other, who was the youngest, Scythes. Then she remembered the
instructions she had received from Hercules, and, in obedience to
his orders, she put her sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus
and Gelonus, proving unequal to the task enjoined, their mother sent
them out of the land; Scythes, the youngest, succeeded, and so he
was allowed to remain. From Scythes, the son of Hercules, were descended
the after kings of Scythia; and from the circumstance of the goblet
which hung from the belt, the Scythians to this day wear goblets at
their girdles. This was the only thing which the mother of Scythes
did for him. Such is the tale told by the Greeks who dwell around
the Pontus.
There is also another different story, now to be related, in which
I am more inclined to put faith than in any other. It is that the
wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and there warred with the
Massagetae, but with ill success; they therefore quitted their homes,
crossed the Araxes, and entered the land of Cimmeria. For the land
which is now inhabited by the Scyths was formerly the country of the
Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives, who heard how numerous the
invading army was, held a council. At this meeting opinion was divided,
and both parties stiffly maintained their own view; but the counsel
of the Royal tribe was the braver. For the others urged that the best
thing to be done was to leave the country, and avoid a contest with
so vast a host; but the Royal tribe advised remaining and fighting
for the soil to the last. As neither party chose to give way, the
one determined to retire without a blow and yield their lands to the
invaders; but the other, remembering the good things which they had
enjoyed in their homes, and picturing to themselves the evils which
they had to expect if they gave them up, resolved not to flee, but
rather to die and at least be buried in their fatherland. Having thus
decided, they drew apart in two bodies, the one as numerous as the
other, and fought together. All of the Royal tribe were slain, and
the people buried them near the river Tyras, where their grave is
still to be seen. Then the rest of the Cimmerians departed, and the
Scythians, on their coming, took possession of a deserted land.
Scythia still retains traces of the Cimmerians; there are Cimmerian
castles, and a Cimmerian ferry, also a tract called Cimmeria, and
a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the Cimmerians, when
they fled into Asia to escape the Scyths, made a settlement in the
peninsula where the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built. The
Scyths, it is plain, pursued them, and missing their road, poured
into Media. For the Cimmerians kept the line which led along the sea-shore,
but the Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon their right,
thus proceeding inland, and falling upon Media. This account is one
which is common both to Greeks and barbarians.
Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius, a native of Proconnesus, says in
the course of his poem that wrapt in Bacchic fury he went as far as
the Issedones. Above them dwelt the Arimaspi, men with one eye; still
further, the gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these, the Hyperboreans,
who extended to the sea. Except the Hyperboreans, all these nations,
beginning with the Arimaspi, were continually encroaching upon their
neighbours. Hence it came to pass that the Arimaspi drove the Issedonians
from their country, while the Issedonians dispossessed the Scyths;
and the Scyths, pressing upon the Cimmerians, who dwelt on the shores
of the Southern Sea, forced them to leave their land. Thus even Aristeas
does not agree in his account of this region with the Scythians.
The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of these things, I have
already mentioned. I will now relate a tale which I heard concerning
him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they said, who belonged
to one of the noblest families in the island, had entered one day
into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly dropt down dead. Hereupon the
fuller shut up his shop, and went to tell Aristeas' kindred what had
happened. The report of the death had just spread through the town,
when a certain Cyzicenian, lately arrived from Artaca, contradicted
the rumour, affirming that he had met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus,
and had spoken with him. This man, therefore, strenuously denied the
rumour; the relations, however, proceeded to the fuller's shop with
all things necessary for the funeral, intending to carry the body
away. But on the shop being opened, no Aristeas was found, either
dead or alive. Seven years afterwards he reappeared, they told me,
in Proconnesus, and wrote the poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia,
after which he disappeared a second time. This is the tale current
in the two cities above-mentioned.
What follows I know to have happened to the Metapontines of Italy,
three hundred and forty years after the second disappearance of Aristeas,
as I collect by comparing the accounts given me at Proconnesus and
Metapontum. Aristeas then, as the Metapontines affirm, appeared to
them in their own country, and ordered them to set up an altar in
honour of Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be called that
of Aristeas the Proconnesian. "Apollo," he told them, "had come to
their country once, though he had visited no other Italiots; and he
had been with Apollo at the time, not however in his present form,
but in the shape of a crow." Having said so much, he vanished. Then
the Metapontines, as they relate, sent to Delphi, and inquired of
the god in what light they were to regard the appearance of this ghost
of a man. The Pythoness, in reply, bade them attend to what the spectre
said, "for so it would go best with them." Thus advised, they did
as they had been directed: and there is now a statue bearing the name
of Aristeas, close by the image of Apollo in the market-place of Metapontum,
with bay-trees standing around it. But enough has been said concerning
Aristeas.
With regard to the regions which lie above the country whereof this
portion of my history treats, there is no one who possesses any exact
knowledge. Not a single person can I find who professes to be acquainted
with them by actual observation. Even Aristeas, the traveller of whom
I lately spoke, does not claim- and he is writing poetry- to have
reached any farther than the Issedonians. What he relates concerning
the regions beyond is, he confesses, mere hearsay, being the account
which the Issedonians gave him of those countries. However, I shall
proceed to mention all that I have learnt of these parts by the most
exact inquiries which I have been able to make concerning them.
Above the mart of the Borysthenites, which is situated in the very
centre of the whole sea-coast of Scythia, the first people who inhabit
the land are the Callipedae, a Greco-Scythic race. Next to them, as
you go inland, dwell the people called the Alazonians. These two nations
in other respects resemble the Scythians in their usages, but sow
and eat corn, also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Beyond the
Alazonians reside Scythian cultivators, who grow corn, not for their
own use, but for sale. Still higher up are the Neuri. Northwards of
the Neuri the continent, as far as it is known to us, is uninhabited.
These are the nations along the course of the river Hypanis, west
of the Borysthenes.
Across the Borysthenes, the first country after you leave the coast
is Hylaea (the Woodland). Above this dwell the Scythian Husbandmen,
whom the Greeks living near the Hypanis call Borysthenites, while
they call themselves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen extend eastward
a distance of three days' journey to a river bearing the name of Panticapes,
while northward the country is theirs for eleven days' sail up the
course of the Borysthenes. Further inland there is a vast tract which
is uninhabited. Above this desolate region dwell the Cannibals, who
are a people apart, much unlike the Scythians. Above them the country
becomes an utter desert; not a single tribe, so far as we know, inhabits
it.
Crossing the Panticapes, and proceeding eastward of the Husbandmen,
we come upon the wandering Scythians, who neither plough nor sow.
Their country, and the whole of this region, except Hylaea, is quite
bare of trees. They extend towards the east a distance of fourteen'
days' journey, occupying a tract which reaches to the river Gerrhus.
On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is the Royal district, as it is
called: here dwells the largest and bravest of the Scythian tribes,
which looks upon all the other tribes in the light of slaves. Its
country reaches on the south to Taurica, on the east to the trench
dug by the sons of the blind slaves, the mart upon the Palus Maeotis,
called Cremni (the Cliffs), and in part to the river Tanais. North
of the country of the Royal Scythians are the Melanchaeni (Black-Robes),
a people of quite a different race from the Scythians. Beyond them
lie marshes and a region without inhabitants, so far as our knowledge
reaches.
When one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the first
region on crossing is that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning at the
upper end of the Palus Maeotis, stretch northward a distance of fifteen
days' journey, inhabiting a country which is entirely bare of trees,
whether wild or cultivated. Above them, possessing the second region,
dwell the Budini, whose territory is thickly wooded with trees of
every kind.
Beyond the Budini, as one goes northward, first there is a desert,
seven days' journey across; after which, if one inclines somewhat
to the east, the Thyssagetae are reached, a numerous nation quite
distinct from any other, and living by the chase. Adjoining them,
and within the limits of the same region, are the people who bear
the name of Iyrcae; they also support themselves by hunting, which
they practise in the following manner. The hunter climbs a tree, the
whole country abounding in wood, and there sets himself in ambush;
he has a dog at hand, and a horse, trained to lie down upon its belly,
and thus make itself low; the hunter keeps watch, and when he sees
his game, lets fly an arrow; then mounting his horse, he gives the
beast chase, his dog following hard all the while. Beyond these people,
a little to the east, dwells a distinct tribe of Scyths, who revolted
once from the Royal Scythians, and migrated into these parts.
As far as their country, the tract of land whereof I have been speaking
is all a smooth plain, and the soil deep; beyond you enter on a region
which is rugged and stony. Passing over a great extent of this rough
country, you come to a people dwelling at the foot of lofty mountains,
who are said to be all- both men and women- bald from their birth,
to have flat noses, and very long chins. These people speak a language
of their own,. the dress which they wear is the same as the Scythian.
They live on the fruit of a certain tree, the name of which is Ponticum;
in size it is about equal to our fig-tree, and it bears a fruit like
a bean, with a stone inside. When the fruit is ripe, they strain it
through cloths; the juice which runs off is black and thick, and is
called by the natives "aschy." They lap this up with their tongues,
and also mix it with milk for a drink; while they make the lees, which
are solid, into cakes, and eat them instead of meat; for they have
but few sheep in their country, in which there is no good pasturage.
Each of them dwells under a tree, and they cover the tree in winter
with a cloth of thick white felt, but take off the covering in the
summer-time. No one harms these people, for they are looked upon as
sacred- they do not even possess any warlike weapons. When their neighbours
fall out, they make up the quarrel; and when one flies to them for
refuge, he is safe from all hurt. They are called the Argippaeans.
Up to this point the territory of which we are speaking is very completely
explored, and all the nations between the coast and the bald-headed
men are well known to us. For some of the Scythians are accustomed
to penetrate as far, of whom inquiry may easily be made, and Greeks
also go there from the mart on the Borysthenes, and from the other
marts along the Euxine. The Scythians who make this journey communicate
with the inhabitants by means of seven interpreters and seven languages.
Thus far, therefore, the land is known; but beyond the bald-headed
men lies a region of which no one can give any exact account. Lofty
and precipitous mountains, which are never crossed, bar further progress.
The bald men say, but it does not seem to me credible, that the people
who live in these mountains have feet like goats; and that after passing
them you find another race of men, who sleep during one half of the
year. This latter statement appears to me quite unworthy of credit.
The region east of the bald-headed men is well known to be inhabited
by the Issedonians, but the tract that lies to the north of these
two nations is entirely unknown, except by the accounts which they
give of it.
The Issedonians are said to have the following customs. When a man's
father dies, all the near relatives bring sheep to the house; which
are sacrificed, and their flesh cut in pieces, while at the same time
the dead body undergoes the like treatment. The two sorts of flesh
are afterwards mixed together, and the whole is served up at a banquet.
The head of the dead man is treated differently: it is stripped bare,
cleansed, and set in gold. It then becomes an ornament on which they
pride themselves, and is brought out year by year at the great festival
which sons keep in honour of their fathers' death, just as the Greeks
keep their Genesia. In other respects the Issedonians are reputed
to be observers of justice: and it is to be remarked that their women
have equal authority with the men. Thus our knowledge extends as far
as this nation.
The regions beyond are known only from the accounts of the Issedonians,
by whom the stories are told of the one-eyed race of men and the gold-guarding
griffins. These stories are received by the Scythians from the Issedonians,
and by them passed on to us Greeks: whence it arises that we give
the one-eyed race the Scythian name of Arimaspi, "arima" being the
Scythic word for "one," and "spu" for "the eye."
The whole district whereof we have here discoursed has winters of
exceeding rigour. During eight months the frost is so intense that
water poured upon the ground does not form mud, but if a fire be lighted
on it mud is produced. The sea freezes, and the Cimmerian Bosphorus
is frozen over. At that season the Scythians who dwell inside the
trench make warlike expeditions upon the ice, and even drive their
waggons across to the country of the Sindians. Such is the intensity
of the cold during eight months out of the twelve; and even in the
remaining four the climate is still cool. The character of the winter
likewise is unlike that of the same season in any other country; for
at that time, when the rains ought to fall in Scythia, there is scarcely
any rain worth mentioning, while in summer it never gives over raining;
and thunder, which elsewhere is frequent then, in Scythia is unknown
in that part of the year, coming only in summer, when it is very heavy.
Thunder in the winter-time is there accounted a prodigy; as also are
earthquakes, whether they happen in winter or summer. Horses bear
the winter well, cold as it is, but mules and asses are quite unable
to bear it; whereas in other countries mules and asses are found to
endure the cold, while horses, if they stand still, are frost-bitten.
To me it seems that the cold may likewise be the cause which prevents
the oxen in Scythia from having horns. There is a line of Homer's
in the Odyssey which gives a support to my opinion:-
Libya too, where horns hud quick on the foreheads of lambkins. He
means to say what is quite true, that in warm countries the horns
come early. So too in countries where the cold is severe animals either
have no horns, or grow them with difficulty- the cold being the cause
in this instance.
Here I must express my wonder- additions being what my work always
from the very first affected- that in Elis, where the cold is not
remarkable, and there is nothing else to account for it, mules are
never produced. The Eleans say it is in consequence of a curse; and
their habit is, when the breeding-time comes, to take their mares
into one of the adjoining countries, and there keep them till they
are in foal, when they bring them back again into Elis.
With respect to the feathers which are said by the Scythians to fill
the air, and to prevent persons from penetrating into the remoter
parts of the continent, even having any view of those regions, my
opinion is that in the countries above Scythia it always snows- less,
of course, in the summer than in the wintertime. Now snow when it
falls looks like feathers, as every one is aware who has seen it come
down close to him. These northern regions, therefore, are uninhabitable
by reason of the severity of the winter; and the Scythians, with their
neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers because, I think, of the
likeness which they bear to them. I have now related what is said
of the most distant parts of this continent whereof any account is
given.
Of the Hyperboreans nothing is said either by the Scythians or by
any of the other dwellers in these regions, unless it be the Issedonians.
But in my opinion, even the Issedonians are silent concerning them;
otherwise the Scythians would have repeated their statements, as they
do those concerning the one-eyed men. Hesiod, however, mentions them,
and Homer also in the Epigoni, if that be really a work of his.
But the persons who have by far the most to say on this subject are
the Delians. They declare that certain offerings, packed in wheaten
straw, were brought from the country of the Hyperboreans into Scythia,
and that the Scythians received them and passed them on to their neighbours
upon the west, who continued to pass them on until at last they reached
the Adriatic. From hence they were sent southward, and when they came
to Greece, were received first of all by the Dodonaeans. Thence they
descended to the Maliac Gulf, from which they were carried across
into Euboea, where the people handed them on from city to city, till
they came at length to Carystus. The Carystians took them over to
Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the Tenians brought them finally
to Delos. Such, according to their own account, was the road by which
the offerings reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say, named Hyperoche
and Laodice, brought the first offerings from the Hyperboreans; and
with them the Hyperboreans sent five men to keep them from all harm
by the way; these are the persons whom the Delians call "Perpherees,"
and to whom great honours are paid at Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans,
when they found that their messengers did not return, thinking it
would be a grievous thing always to be liable to lose the envoys they
should send, adopted the following plan:- they wrapped their offerings
in the wheaten straw, and bearing them to their borders, charged their
neighbours to send them forward from one nation to another, which
was done accordingly, and in this way the offerings reached Delos.
I myself know of a practice like this, which obtains with the women
of Thrace and Paeonia. They in their sacrifices to the queenly Diana
bring wheaten straw always with their offerings. Of my own knowledge
I can testify that this is so.
The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans died in Delos; and in their honour
all the Delian girls and youths are wont to cut off their hair. The
girls, before their marriage-day, cut off a curl, and twining it round
a distaff, lay it upon the grave of the strangers. This grave is on
the left as one enters the precinct of Diana, and has an olive-tree
growing on it. The youths wind some of their hair round a kind of
grass, and, like the girls, place it upon the tomb. Such are the honours
paid to these damsels by the Delians.
They add that, once before, there came to Delos by the same road as
Hyperoche and Laodice, two other virgins from the Hyperboreans, whose
names were Arge and Opis. Hyperoche and Laodice came to bring to Ilithyia
the offering which they had laid upon themselves, in acknowledgment
of their quick labours; but Arge and Opis came at the same time as
the gods of Delos,' and are honoured by the Delians in a different
way. For the Delian women make collections in these maidens' names,
and invoke them in the hymn which Olen, a Lycian, composed for them;
and the rest of the islanders, and even the Ionians, have been taught
by the Delians to do the like. This Olen, who came from Lycia, made
the other old hymns also which are sung in Delos. The Delians add
that the ashes from the thigh-bones burnt upon the altar are scattered
over the tomb of Opis and Arge. Their tomb lies behind the temple
of Diana, facing the east, near the banqueting-hall of the Ceians.
Thus much then, and no more, concerning the Hyperboreans.
As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to have been a Hyperborean,
and to have gone with his arrow all round the world without once eating,
I shall pass it by in silence. Thus much, however, is clear: if there
are Hyperboreans, there must also be Hypernotians. For my part, I
cannot but laugh when I see numbers of persons drawing maps of the
world without having any reason to guide them; making, as they do,
the ocean-stream to run all round the earth, and the earth itself
to be an exact circle, as if described by a pair of compasses, with
Europe and Asia just of the same size. The truth in this matter I
will now proceed to explain in a very few words, making it clear what
the real size of each region is, and what shape should be given them.
The Persians inhabit a country upon the southern or Erythraean sea;
above them, to the north, are the Medes; beyond the Medes, the Saspirians;
beyond them, the Colchians, reaching to the northern sea, into which
the Phasis empties itself. These four nations fill the whole space
from one sea to the other.
West of these nations there project into the sea two tracts which
I will now describe; one, beginning at the river Phasis on the north,
stretches along the Euxine and the Hellespont to Sigeum in the Troas;
while on the south it reaches from the Myriandrian gulf, which adjoins
Phoenicia, to the Triopic promontory. This is one of the tracts, and
is inhabited by thirty different nations.
The other starts from the country of the Persians, and stretches into
the Erythraean sea, containing first Persia, then Assyria, and after
Assyria, Arabia. It ends, that is to say, it is considered to end,
though it does not really come to a termination, at the Arabian gulf-
the gulf whereinto Darius conducted the canal which he made from the
Nile. Between Persia and Phoenicia lies a broad and ample tract of
country, after which the region I am describing skirts our sea, stretching
from Phoenicia along the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes to
Egypt, where it terminates. This entire tract contains but three nations.
The whole of Asia west of the country of the Persians is comprised
in these two regions.
Beyond the tract occupied by the Persians, Medes, Saspirians, and
Colchians, towards the east and the region of the sunrise, Asia is
bounded on the south by the Erythraean sea, and on the north by the
Caspian and the river Araxes, which flows towards the rising sun.
Till you reach India the country is peopled; but further east it is
void of inhabitants, and no one can say what sort of region it is.
Such then is the shape, and such the size of Asia.
Libya belongs to one of the above-mentioned tracts, for it adjoins
on Egypt. In Egypt the tract is at first a narrow neck, the distance
from our sea to the Erythraean not exceeding a hundred thousand fathoms,
in other words, a thousand furlongs; but from the point where the
neck ends, the tract which bears the name of Libya is of very great
breadth.
For my part I am astonished that men should ever have divided Libya,
Asia, and Europe as they have, for they are exceedingly unequal. Europe
extends the entire length of the other two, and for breadth will not
even (as I think) bear to be compared to them. As for Libya, we know
it to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached
to Asia. This discovery was first made by Necos, the Egyptian king,
who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between the Nile
and the Arabian gulf, sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians,
with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to Egypt
through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their
departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and so sailed into
the southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they
might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited
until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail;
and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was
not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules,
and made good their voyage home. On their return, they declared- I
for my part do not believe them, but perhaps others may- that in sailing
round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was
the extent of Libya first discovered.
Next to these Phoenicians the Carthaginians, according to their own
accounts, made the voyage. For Sataspes, son of Teaspes the Achaemenian,
did not circumnavigate Libya, though he was sent to do so; but, fearing
the length and desolateness of the journey, he turned back and left
unaccomplished the task which had been set him by his mother. This
man had used violence towards a maiden, the daughter of Zopyrus, son
of Megabyzus, and King Xerxes was about to impale him for the offence,
when his mother, who was a sister of Darius, begged him off, undertaking
to punish his crime more heavily than the king himself had designed.
She would force him, she said, to sail round Libya and return to Egypt
by the Arabian gulf. Xerxes gave his consent; and Sataspes went down
to Egypt, and there got a ship and crew, with which he set sail for
the Pillars of Hercules. Having passed the Straits, he doubled the
Libyan headland, known as Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward. Following
this course for many months over a vast stretch of sea, and finding
that more water than he had crossed still lay ever before him, he
put about, and came back to Egypt. Thence proceeding to the court,
he made report to Xerxes, that at the farthest point to which he had
reached, the coast was occupied by a dwarfish race, who wore a dress
made from the palm tree. These people, whenever he landed, left their
towns and fled away to the mountains; his men, however, did them no
wrong, only entering into their cities and taking some of their cattle.
The reason why he had not sailed quite round Libya was, he said, because
the ship stopped, and would no go any further. Xerxes, however, did
not accept this account for true; and so Sataspes, as he had failed
to accomplish the task set him, was impaled by the king's orders in
accordance with the former sentence. One of his eunuchs, on hearing
of his death, ran away with a great portion of his wealth, and reached
Samos, where a certain Samian seized the whole. I know the man's name
well, but I shall willingly forget it here.
Of the greater part of Asia Darius was the discoverer. Wishing to
know where the Indus (which is the only river save one that produces
crocodiles) emptied itself into the sea, he sent a number of men,
on whose truthfulness he could rely, and among them Scylax of Caryanda,
to sail down the river. They started from the city of Caspatyrus,
in the region called Pactyica, and sailed down the stream in an easterly
direction to the sea. Here they turned westward, and, after a voyage
of thirty months, reached the place from which the Egyptian king,
of whom I spoke above, sent the Phoenicians to sail round Libya. After
this voyage was completed, Darius conquered the Indians, and made
use of the sea in those parts. Thus all Asia, except the eastern portion,
has been found to be similarly circumstanced with Libya.
But the boundaries of Europe are quite unknown, and there is not a
man who can say whether any sea girds it round either on the north
or on the east, while in length it undoubtedly extends as far as both
the other two. For my part I cannot conceive why three names, and
women's names especially, should ever have been given to a tract which
is in reality one, nor why the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian Phasis
(or according to others the Maeotic Tanais and Cimmerian ferry) should
have been fixed upon for the boundary lines; nor can I even say who
gave the three tracts their names, or whence they took the epithets.
According to the Greeks in general, Libya was so called after a certain
Libya, a native woman, and Asia after the wife of Prometheus. The
Lydians, however, put in a claim to the latter name, which, they declare,
was not derived from Asia the wife of Prometheus, but from Asies,
the son of Cotys, and grandson of Manes, who also gave name to the
tribe Asias at Sardis. As for Europe, no one can say whether it is
surrounded by the sea or not, neither is it known whence the name
of Europe was derived, nor who gave it name, unless we say that Europe
was so called after the Tyrian Europe, and before her time was nameless,
like the other divisions. But it is certain that Europe was an Asiatic,
and never even set foot on the land which the Greeks now call Europe,
only sailing from Phoenicia to Crete, and from Crete to Lycia. However
let us quit these matters. We shall ourselves continue to use the
names which custom sanctions.
The Euxine sea, where Darius now went to war, has nations dwelling
around it, with the one exception of the Scythians, more unpolished
than those of any other region that we know of. For, setting aside
Anacharsis and the Scythian people, there is not within this region
a single nation which can be put forward as having any claims to wisdom,
or which has produced a single person of any high repute. The Scythians
indeed have in one respect, and that the very most important of all
those that fall under man's control, shown themselves wiser than any
nation upon the face of the earth. Their customs otherwise are not
such as I admire. The one thing of which I speak is the contrivance
whereby they make it impossible for the enemy who invades them to
escape destruction, while they themselves are entirely out of his
reach, unless it please them to engage with him. Having neither cities
nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go;
accustomed, moreover, one and all of them, to shoot from horseback;
and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their waggons the
only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being unconquerable,
and unassailable even?
The nature of their country, and the rivers by which it is intersected,
greatly favour this mode of resisting attacks. For the land is level,
well watered, and abounding in pasture; while the rivers which traverse
it are almost equal in number to the canals of Egypt. Of these I shall
only mention the most famous and such as are navigable to some distance
from the sea. They are, the Ister, which has five mouths; the Tyras,
the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus,
and the Tanais. The courses of these streams I shall now proceed to
describe.
The Ister is of all the rivers with which we are acquainted the mightiest.
It never varies in height, but continues at the same level summer
and winter. Counting from the west it is the first of the Scythian
rivers, and the reason of its being the greatest is that it receives
the water of several tributaries. Now the tributaries which swell
its flood are the following: first, on the side of Scythia, these
five- the stream called by the Scythians Porata, and by the Greeks
Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the Ararus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus.
The first mentioned is a great stream, and is the easternmost of the
tributaries. The Tiarantus is of less volume, and more to the west.
The Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus fall into the Ister between these
two. All the above mentioned are genuine Scythian rivers, and go to
swell the current of the Ister.
From the country of the Agathyrsi comes down another river, the Maris,
which empties itself into the same; and from the heights of Haemus
descend with a northern course three mighty streams, the Atlas, the
Auras, and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into it. Thrace gives
it three tributaries, the Athrys, the Noes, and the Artanes, which
all pass through the country of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another tributary
is furnished by Paeonia, namely, the Scius; this river, rising near
Mount Rhodope, forces its way through the chain of Haemus, and so
reaches the Ister. From Illyria comes another stream, the Angrus,
which has a course from south to north, and after watering the Triballian
plain, falls into the Brongus, which falls into the Ister. So the
Ister is augmented by these two streams, both considerable. Besides
all these, the Ister receives also the waters of the Carpis and the
Alpis, two rivers running in a northerly direction from the country
above the Umbrians. For the Ister flows through the whole extent of
Europe, rising in the country of the Celts (the most westerly of all
the nations of Europe, excepting the Cynetians), and thence running
across the continent till it reaches Scythia, whereof it washes the
flanks.
All these streams, then, and many others, add their waters to swell
the flood of the Ister, which thus increased becomes the mightiest
of rivers; for undoubtedly if we compare the stream of the Nile with
the single stream of the Ister, we must give the preference to the
Nile, of which no tributary river, nor even rivulet, augments the
volume. The Ister remains at the same level both summer and winter-
owing to the following reasons, as I believe. During the winter it
runs at its natural height, or a very little higher, because in those
countries there is scarcely any rain in winter, but constant snow.
When summer comes, this snow, which is of great depth, begins to melt,
and flows into the Ister, which is swelled at that season, not only
by this cause but also by the rains, which are heavy and frequent
at that part of the year. Thus the various streams which go to form
the Ister are higher in summer than in winter, and just so much higher
as the sun's power and attraction are greater; so that these two causes
counteract each other, and the effect is to produce a balance, whereby
the Ister remains always at the same level.
This, then, is one of the great Scythian rivers; the next to it is
the Tyras, which rises from a great lake separating Scythia from the
land of the Neuri, and runs with a southerly course to the sea. Greeks
dwell at the mouth of the river, who are called Tyritae.
The third river is the Hypanis. This stream rises within the limits
of Scythia, and has its source in another vast lake, around which
wild white horses graze. The lake is called, properly enough, the
Mother of the Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during the distance
of five days' navigation is a shallow stream, and the water sweet
and pure; thence, however, to the sea, which is a distance of four
days, it is exceedingly bitter. This change is caused by its receiving
into it at that point a brook the waters of which are so bitter that,
although it is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless taints the entire
Hypanis, which is a large stream among those of the second order.
The source of this bitter spring is on the borders of the Scythian
Husbandmen, where they adjoin upon the Alazonians; and the place where
it rises is called in the Scythic tongue Exampaeus, which means in
our language, "The Sacred Ways." The spring itself bears the same
name. The Tyras and the Hypanis approach each other in the country
of the Alazonians, but afterwards separate, and leave a wide space
between their streams.
The fourth of the Scythian rivers is the Borysthenes. Next to the
Ister, it is the greatest of them all; and, in my judgment, it is
the most productive river, not merely in Scythia, but in the whole
world, excepting only the Nile, with which no stream can possibly
compare. It has upon its banks the loveliest and most excellent pasturages
for cattle; it contains abundance of the most delicious fish; its
water is most pleasant to the taste; its stream is limpid, while all
the other rivers near it are muddy; the richest harvests spring up
along its course, and where the ground is not sown, the heaviest crops
of grass; while salt forms in great plenty about its mouth without
human aid, and large fish are taken in it of the sort called Antacaei,
without any prickly bones, and good for pickling. Nor are these the
whole of its marvels. As far inland as the place named Gerrhus, which
is distant forty days' voyage from the sea, its course is known, and
its direction is from north to south; but above this no one has traced
it, so as to say through what countries it flows. It enters the territory
of the Scythian Husbandmen after running for some time across a desert
region, and continues for ten days' navigation to pass through the
land which they inhabit. It is the only river besides the Nile the
sources of which are unknown to me, as they are also (I believe) to
all the other Greeks. Not long before it reaches the sea, the Borysthenes
is joined by the Hypanis, which pours its waters into the same lake.
The land that lies between them, a narrow point like the beak of a
ship, is called Cape Hippolaus. Here is a temple dedicated to Ceres,
and opposite the temple upon the Hypanis is the dwelling-place of
the Borysthenites. But enough has been said of these streams.
Next in succession comes the fifth river, called the Panticapes, which
has, like the Borysthenes, a course from north to south, and rises
from a lake. The space between this river and the Borysthenes is occupied
by the Scythians who are engaged in husbandry. After watering their
country, the Panticapes flows through Hylaea, and empties itself into
the Borysthenes.
The sixth stream is the Hypacyris, a river rising from a lake, and
running directly through the middle of the Nomadic Scythians. It falls
into the sea near the city of Carcinitis, leaving Hylaea and the course
of Achilles to the right.
The seventh river is the Gerrhus, which is a branch thrown out by
the Borysthenes at the point where the course of that stream first
begins to be known, to wit, the region called by the same name as
the stream itself, viz. Gerrhus. This river on its passage towards
the sea divides the country of the Nomadic from that of the Royal
Scyths. It runs into the Hypacyris.
The eighth river is the Tanais, a stream which has its source, far
up the country, in a lake of vast size, and which empties itself into
another still larger lake, the Palus Maeotis, whereby the country
of the Royal Scythians is divided from that of the Sauromatae. The
Tanais receives the waters of a tributary stream, called the Hyrgis.
Such then are the rivers of chief note in Scythia. The grass which
the land produces is more apt to generate gall in the beasts that
feed on it than any other grass which is known to us, as plainly appears
on the opening of their carcases.
Thus abundantly are the Scythians provided with the most important
necessaries. Their manners and customs come now to be described. They
worship only the following gods, namely, Vesta, whom they reverence
beyond all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they consider to be
the wife of Jupiter; and after these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules,
and Mars. These gods are worshipped by the whole nation: the Royal
Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to Neptune. In the Scythic tongue
Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter (very properly, in my judgment) Papaeus,
Tellus Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus Artimpasa, and Neptune
Thamimasadas. They use no images, altars, or temples, except in the
worship of Mars; but in his worship they do use them.
The manner of their sacrifices is everywhere and in every case the
same; the victim stands with its two fore-feet bound together by a
cord, and the person who is about to offer, taking his station behind
the victim, gives the rope a pull, and thereby throws the animal down;
as it falls he invokes the god to whom he is offering; after which
he puts a noose round the animal's neck, and, inserting a small stick,
twists it round, and so strangles him. No fire is lighted, there is
no consecration, and no pouring out of drink-offerings; but directly
that the beast is strangled the sacrificer flays him, and then sets
to work to boil the flesh.
As Scythia, however, is utterly barren of firewood, a plan has had
to be contrived for boiling the flesh, which is the following. After
flaying the beasts, they take out all the bones, and (if they possess
such gear) put the flesh into boilers made in the country, which are
very like the cauldrons of the Lesbians, except that they are of a
much larger size; then placing the bones of the animals beneath the
cauldron, they set them alight, and so boil the meat. If they do not
happen to possess a cauldron, they make the animal's paunch hold the
flesh, and pouring in at the same time a little water, lay the bones
under and light them. The bones burn beautifully; and the paunch easily
contains all the flesh when it is stript from the bones, so that by
this plan your ox is made to boil himself, and other victims also
to do the like. When the meat is all cooked, the sacrificer offers
a portion of the flesh and of the entrails, by casting it on the ground
before him. They sacrifice all sorts of cattle, but most commonly
horses.
Such are the victims offered to the other gods, and such is the mode
in which they are sacrificed; but the rites paid to Mars are different.
In every district, at the seat of government, there stands a temple
of this god, whereof the following is a description. It is a pile
of brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth
three furlongs; in height somewhat less, having a square platform
upon the top, three sides of which are precipitous, while the fourth
slopes so that men may walk up it. Each year a hundred and fifty waggon-loads
of brushwood are added to the pile, which sinks continually by reason
of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on the top of every
such mound, and serves as the image of Mars: yearly sacrifices of
cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered
thus than to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken
in war, out of every hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with
the same rites as the cattle, but with different. Libations of wine
are first poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered
over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the top of the pile,
and the blood poured upon the scymitar. While this takes place at
the top of the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the right
hands and arms of the slaughtered prisoners are cut off, and tossed
on high into the air. Then the other victims are slain, and those
who have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the hands and arms
where they may chance to have fallen, and the bodies also, separate.
Such are the observances of the Scythians with respect to sacrifice.
They never use swine for the purpose, nor indeed is it their wont
to breed them in any part of their country.
In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The Scythian
soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle.
Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries
them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty,
whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order
to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head
above the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull out;
then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and
softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as
a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from
his bridle-rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man
can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves
cloaks, like the capotes of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of
these scalps together. Others flay the right arms of their dead enemies,
and make of the skin, which stripped off with the nails hanging to
it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of a man is thick and
glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other hides. Some
even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching it upon a
frame carry it about with them wherever they ride. Such are the Scythian
customs with respect to scalps and skins.
The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but of those whom
they most detest, they treat as follows. Having sawn off the portion
below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside, they cover the outside
with leather. When a man is poor, this is all that he does; but if
he is rich, he also lines the inside with gold: in either case the
skull is used as a drinking-cup. They do the same with the skulls
of their own kith and kin if they have been at feud with them, and
have vanquished them in the presence of the king. When strangers whom
they deem of any account come to visit them, these skulls are handed
round, and the host tells how that these were his relations who made
war upon him, and how that he got the better of them; all this being
looked upon as proof of bravery.
Once a year the governor of each district, at a set place in his own
province, mingles a bowl of wine, of which all Scythians have a right
to drink by whom foes have been slain; while they who have slain no
enemy are not allowed to taste of the bowl, but sit aloof in disgrace.
No greater shame than this can happen to them. Such as have slain
a very large number of foes, have two cups instead of one, and drink
from both.
Scythia has an abundance of soothsayers, who foretell the future by
means of a number of willow wands. A large bundle of these wands is
brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer unties the bundle,
and places each wand by itself, at the same time uttering his prophecy:
then, while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods together again,
and makes them up once more into a bundle. This mode of divination
is of home growth in Scythia. The Enarees, or woman-like men, have
another method, which they say Venus taught them. It is done with
the inner bark of the linden-tree. They take a piece of this bark,
and, splitting it into three strips, keep twining the strips about
their fingers, and untwining them, while they prophesy.
Whenever the Scythian king falls sick, he sends for the three soothsayers
of most renown at the time, who come and make trial of their art in
the mode above described. Generally they say that the king is ill
because such or such a person, mentioning his name, has sworn falsely
by the royal hearth. This is the usual oath among the Scythians, when
they wish to swear with very great solemnity. Then the man accused
of having foresworn himself is arrested and brought before the king.
The soothsayers tell him that by their art it is clear he has sworn
a false oath by the royal hearth, and so caused the illness of the
king- he denies the charge, protests that he has sworn no false oath,
and loudly complains of the wrong done to him. Upon this the king
sends for six new soothsayers, who try the matter by soothsaying.
If they too find the man guilty of the offence, straightway he is
beheaded by those who first accused him, and his goods are parted
among them: if, on the contrary, they acquit him, other soothsayers,
and again others, are sent for, to try the case. Should the greater
number decide in favour of the man's innocence, then they who first
accused him forfeit their lives.
The mode of their execution is the following: a waggon is loaded with
brushwood, and oxen are harnessed to it; the soothsayers, with their
feet tied together, their hands bound behind their backs, and their
mouths gagged, are thrust into the midst of the brushwood; finally
the wood is set alight, and the oxen, being startled, are made to
rush off with the waggon. It often happens that the oxen and the soothsayers
are both consumed together, but sometimes the pole of the waggon is
burnt through, and the oxen escape with a scorching. Diviners- lying
diviners, they call them- are burnt in the way described, for other
causes besides the one here spoken of. When the king puts one of them
to death, he takes care not to let any of his sons survive: all the
male offspring are slain with the father, only the females being allowed
to live.
Oaths among the Scyths are accompanied with the following ceremonies:
a large earthern bowl is filled with wine, and the parties to the
oath, wounding themselves slightly with a knife or an awl, drop some
of their blood into the wine; then they plunge into the mixture a
scymitar, some arrows, a battle-axe, and a javelin, all the while
repeating prayers; lastly the two contracting parties drink each a
draught from the bowl, as do also the chief men among their followers.
The tombs of their kings are in the land of the Gerrhi, who dwell
at the point where the Borysthenes is first navigable. Here, when
the king dies, they dig a grave, which is square in shape, and of
great size. When it is ready, they take the king's corpse, and, having
opened the belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity with
a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and
anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening, enclose the body
in wax, and, placing it on a waggon, carry it about through all the
different tribes. On this procession each tribe, when it receives
the corpse, imitates the example which is first set by the Royal Scythians;
every man chops off a piece of his ear, crops his hair close, and
makes a cut all round his arm, lacerates his forehead and his nose,
and thrusts an arrow through his left hand. Then they who have the
care of the corpse carry it with them to another of the tribes which
are under the Scythian rule, followed by those whom they first visited.
On completing the circuit of all the tribes under their sway, they
find themselves in the country of the Gerrhi, who are the most remote
of all, and so they come to the tombs of the kings. There the body
of the dead king is laid in the grave prepared for it, stretched upon
a mattress; spears are fixed in the ground on either side of the corpse,
and beams stretched across above it to form a roof, which is covered
with a thatching of osier twigs. In the open space around the body
of the king they bury one of his concubines, first killing her by
strangling, and also his cup-bearer, his cook, his groom, his lacquey,
his messenger, some of his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions,
and some golden cups; for they use neither silver nor brass. After
this they set to work, and raise a vast mound above the grave, all
of them vying with each other and seeking to make it as tall as possible.
When a year is gone by, further ceremonies take place. Fifty of the
best of the late king's attendants are taken, all native Scythians-
for, as bought slaves are unknown in the country, the Scythian kings
choose any of their subjects that they like, to wait on them- fifty
of these are taken and strangled, with fifty of the most beautiful
horses. When they are dead, their bowels are taken out, and the cavity
cleaned, filled full of chaff, and straightway sewn up again. This
done, a number of posts are driven into the ground, in sets of two
pairs each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel is placed
archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways through the bodies
of the horses from tail to neck, and they are mounted up upon the
fellies, so that the felly in front supports the shoulders of the
horse, while that behind sustains the belly and quarters, the legs
dangling in mid-air; each horse is furnished with a bit and bridle,
which latter is stretched out in front of the horse, and fastened
to a peg. The fifty strangled youths are then mounted severally on
the fifty horses. To effect this, a second stake is passed through
their bodies along the course of the spine to the neck; the lower
end of which projects from the body, and is fixed into a socket, made
in the stake that runs lengthwise down the horse. The fifty riders
are thus ranged in a circle round the tomb, and so left.
Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried: as for the
people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a waggon
and take him round to all his friends in succession: each receives
them in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat the dead
man is served with a portion of all that is set before the others;
this is done for forty days, at the end of which time the burial takes
place. After the burial, those engaged in it have to purify themselves,
which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash
their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows:
they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards
one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they
arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish
is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot
stones, and then add some hemp-seed.
Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only that it is a much
coarser and taller plant: some grows wild about the country, some
is produced by cultivation: the Thracians make garments of it which
closely resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has never
seen hemp he is sure to think they are linen, and if he has, unless
he is very experienced in such matters, he will not know of which
material they are.
The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping
under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately
it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can
exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this vapour serves
them instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chance wash their
bodies with water. Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar, and
frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste upon a rough piece
of stone, adding a little water to it. With this substance, which
is of a thick consistency, they plaster their faces all over, and
indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby imparted to them,
and when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin
is clean and glossy.
The Scythians have an extreme hatred of all foreign customs, particularly
of those in use among the Greeks, as the instances of Anacharsis,
and, more lately, of Scylas, have fully shown. The former, after he
had travelled over a great portion of the world, and displayed wherever
he went many proofs of wisdom, as he sailed through the Hellespont
on his return to Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found the inhabitants
celebrating with much pomp and magnificence a festival to the Mother
of the Gods, and was himself induced to make a vow to the goddess,
whereby he engaged, if he got back safe and sound to his home, that
he would give her a festival and a night-procession in all respects
like those which he had seen in Cyzicus. When, therefore, he arrived
in Scythia, he betook himself to the district called the Woodland,
which lies opposite the course of Achilles, and is covered with trees
of all manner of different kinds, and there went through all the sacred
rites with the tabour in his hand, and the images tied to him. While
thus employed, he was noticed by one of the Scythians, who went and
told king Saulius what he had seen. Then king Saulius came in person,
and when he perceived what Anacharsis was about, he shot at him with
an arrow and killed him. To this day, if you ask the Scyths about
Anacharsis, they pretend ignorance of him, because of his Grecian
travels and adoption of the customs of foreigners. I learnt, however,
from Timnes, the steward of Ariapithes, that Anacharsis was paternal
uncle to the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, being the son of Gnurus, who
was the son of Lycus and the grandson of Spargapithes. If Anacharsis
were really of this house, it must have been by his own brother that
he was slain, for Idanthyrsus was a son of the Saulius who put Anacharsis
to death.
I have heard, however, another tale, very different from this, which
is told by the Peloponnesians: they say, that Anacharsis was sent
by the king of the Scyths to make acquaintance with Greece- that he
went, and on his return home reported that the Greeks were all occupied
in the pursuit of every kind of knowledge, except the Lacedaemonians;
who, however, alone knew how to converse sensibly. A silly tale this,
which the Greeks have invented for their amusement! There is no doubt
that Anacharsis suffered death in the mode already related, on account
of his attachment to foreign customs, and the intercourse which he
held with the Greeks.
Scylas, likewise, the son of Ariapithes, many years later, met with
almost the very same fate. Ariapithes, the Scythian king, had several
sons, among them this Scylas, who was the child, not of a native Scyth,
but of a woman of Istria. Bred up by her, Scylas gained an acquaintance
with the Greek language and letters. Some time afterwards, Ariapithes
was treacherously slain by Spargapithes, king of the Agathyrsi; whereupon
Scylas succeeded to the throne, and married one of his father's wives,
a woman named Opoea. This Opoea was a Scythian by birth, and had brought
Ariapithes a son called Oricus. Now when Scylas found himself king
of Scythia, as he disliked the Scythic mode of life, and was attached,
by his bringing up, to the manners of the Greeks, he made it his usual
practice, whenever he came with his army to the town of the Borysthenites,
who, according to their own account, are colonists of the Milesians-
he made it his practice, I say, to leave the army before the city,
and, having entered within the walls by himself, and carefully closed
the gates, to exchange his Scythian dress for Grecian garments, and
in this attire to walk about the forum, without guards or retinue.
The Borysthenites kept watch at the gates, that no Scythian might
see the king thus apparelled. Scylas, meanwhile, lived exactly as
the Greeks, and even offered sacrifices to the gods according to the
Grecian rites. In this way he would pass a month, or more, with the
Borysthenites, after which he would clothe himself again in his Scythian
dress, and so take his departure. This he did repeatedly, and even
built himself a house in Borysthenes, and married a wife there who
was a native of the place.
But when the time came that was ordained to bring him woe, the occasion
of his ruin was the following. He wanted to be initiated in the Bacchic
mysteries, and was on the point of obtaining admission to the rites,
when a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The house which he possessed,
as I mentioned a short time back, in the city of the Borysthenites,
a building of great extent and erected at a vast cost, round which
there stood a number of sphinxes and griffins carved in white marble,
was struck by lightning from on high, and burnt to the ground. Scylas,
nevertheless, went on and received the initiation. Now the Scythians
are wont to reproach the Greeks with their Bacchanal rage, and to
say that it is not reasonable to imagine there is a god who impels
men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was Scylas initiated in the
Bacchic mysteries than one of the Borysthenites went and carried the
news to the Scythians "You Scyths laugh at us" he said, "because we
rave when the god seizes us. But now our god has seized upon your
king, who raves like us, and is maddened by the influence. If you
think I do not tell you true, come with me, and I will show him to
you." The chiefs of the Scythians went with the man accordingly, and
the Borysthenite, conducting them into the city, placed them secretly
on one of the towers. Presently Scylas passed by with the band of
revellers, raving like the rest, and was seen by the watchers. Regarding
the matter as a very great misfortune they instantly departed, and
came and told the army what they had witnessed.
When, therefore, Scylas, after leaving Borysthenes, was about returning
home, the Scythians broke out into revolt. They put at their head
Octamasadas, grandson (on the mother's side) of Teres. Then Scylas,
when he learned the danger with which he was threatened, and the reason
of the disturbance, made his escape to Thrace. Octamasadas, discovering
whither he had fled, marched after him, and had reached the Ister,
when he was met by the forces of the Thracians. The two armies were
about to engage, but before they joined battle, Sitalces sent a message
to Octamasadas to this effect- "Why should there be trial of arms
betwixt thee and me? Thou art my own sister's son, and thou hast in
thy keeping my brother. Surrender him into my hands, and I will give
thy Scylas back to thee. So neither thou nor I will risk our armies."
Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and Octamasadas,
with whom a brother of Sitalces had formerly taken refuge, accepted
the terms. He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained
in exchange his brother Scylas. Sitalces took his brother with him
and withdrew; but Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the spot. Thus
rigidly do the Scythians maintain their own customs, and thus severely
do they punish such as adopt foreign usages.
What the population of Scythia is I was not able to learn with certainty;
the accounts which I received varied from one another. I heard from
some that they were very numerous indeed; others made their numbers
but scanty for such a nation as the Scyths. Thus much, however, I
witnessed with my own eyes. There is a tract called Exampaeus between
the Borysthenes and the Hypanis. I made some mention of it in a former
place, where I spoke of the bitter stream which rising there flows
into the Hypanis, and renders the water of that river undrinkable.
Here then stands a brazen bowl, six times as big as that at the entrance
of the Euxine, which Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, set up. Such
as have never seen that vessel may understand me better if I say that
the Scythian bowl holds with ease six hundred amphorae, and is of
the thickness of six fingers' breadth. The natives gave me the following
account of the manner in which it was made. One of their kings, by
name Ariantas, wishing to know the number of his subjects, ordered
them all to bring him, on pain of death, the point off one of their
arrows. They obeyed; and he collected thereby a vast heap of arrow-heads,
which he resolved to form into a memorial that might go down to posterity.
Accordingly he made of them this bowl, and dedicated it at Exampaeus.
This was all that I could learn concerning the number of the Scythians.
The country has no marvels except its rivers, which are larger and
more numerous than those of any other land. These, and the vastness
of the great plain, are worthy of note, and one thing besides, which
I am about to mention. They show a footmark of Hercules, impressed
on a rock, in shape like the print of a man's foot, but two cubits
in length. It is in the neighbourhood of the Tyras. Having described
this, I return to the subject on which I originally proposed to discourse.
The preparations of Darius against the Scythians had begun, messengers
had been despatched on all sides with the king's commands, some being
required to furnish troops, others to supply ships, others again to
bridge the Thracian Bosphorus, when Artabanus, son of Hystaspes and
brother of Darius, entreated the king to desist from his expedition,
urging on him the great difficulty of attacking Scythia. Good, however,
as the advice of Artabanus was, it failed to persuade Darius. He therefore
ceased his reasonings; and Darius, when his preparations were complete,
led his army forth from Susa.
It was then that a certain Persian, by name Oeobazus, the father of
three sons, all of whom were to accompany the army, came and prayed
the king that he would allow one of his sons to remain with him. Darius
made answer, as if he regarded him in the light of a friend who had
urged a moderate request, "that he would allow them all to remain."
Oeobazus was overjoyed, expecting that all his children would be excused
from serving; the king, however, bade his attendants take the three
sons of Oeobazus and forthwith put them to death. Thus they were all
left behind, but not till they had been deprived of life.
When Darius, on his march from Susa, reached the territory of Chalcedon
on the shores of the Bosphorus, where the bridge had been made, he
took ship and sailed thence to the Cyanean islands, which, according
to the Greeks, once floated. He took his seat also in the temple and
surveyed the Pontus, which is indeed well worthy of consideration.
There is not in the world any other sea so wonderful: it extends in
length eleven thousand one hundred furlongs, and its breadth, at the
widest part, is three thousand three hundred. The mouth is but four
furlongs wide; and this strait, called the Bosphorus, and across which
the bridge of Darius had been thrown, is a hundred and twenty furlongs
in length, reaching from the Euxine to the Propontis. The Propontis
is five hundred furlongs across, and fourteen hundred long. Its waters
flow into the Hellespont, the length of which is four hundred furlongs,
and the width no more than seven. The Hellespont opens into the wide
sea called the Egean.
The mode in which these distances have been measured is the following.
In a long day a vessel generally accomplishes about seventy thousand
fathoms, in the night sixty thousand. Now from the mouth of the Pontus
to the river Phasis, which is the extreme length of this sea, is a
voyage of nine days and eight nights, which makes the distance one
million one hundred and ten thousand fathoms, or eleven thousand one
hundred furlongs. Again, from Sindica, to Themiscyra on the river
Thermodon, where the Pontus is wider than at any other place, is a
sail of three days and two nights; which makes three hundred and thirty
thousand fathoms, or three thousand three hundred furlongs. Such is
the plan on which I have measured the Pontus, the Bosphorus, and the
Hellespont, and such is the account which I have to give of them.
The Pontus has also a lake belonging to it, not very much inferior
to itself in size. The waters of this lake run into the Pontus: it
is called the Maeotis, and also the Mother of the Pontus.
Darius, after he had finished his survey, sailed back to the bridge,
which had been constructed for him by Mandrocles a Samian. He likewise
surveyed the Bosphorus, and erected upon its shores two pillars of
white marble, whereupon he inscribed the names of all the nations
which formed his army- on the one pillar in Greek, on the other in
Assyrian characters. Now his army was drawn from all the nations under
his sway; and the whole amount, without reckoning the naval forces,
was seven hundred thousand men, including cavalry. The fleet consisted
of six hundred ships. Some time afterwards the Byzantines removed
these pillars to their own city, and used them for an altar which
they erected to Orthosian Diana. One block remained behind: it lay
near the temple of Bacchus at Byzantium, and was covered with Assyrian
writing. The spot where Darius bridged the Bosphorus was, I think,
but I speak only from conjecture, half-way between the city of Byzantium
and the temple at the mouth of the strait.
Darius was so pleased with the bridge thrown across the strait by
the Samain Mandrocles, that he not only bestowed upon him all the
customary presents, but gave him ten of every kind. Mandrocles, by
the way of offering first-fruits from these presents, caused a picture
to be painted which showed the whole of the bridge, with King Darius
sitting in a seat of honour, and his army engaged in the passage.
This painting he dedicated in the temple of Juno at Samos, attaching
to it the inscription following:-
The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to Juno's fane
Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;
When for himself a crown he'd skill to gain,
For Samos praise, contenting the Great King. Such was the memorial
of his work which was left by the architect of the bridge.
Darius, after rewarding Mandrocles, passed into Europe, while he ordered
the Ionians to enter the Pontus, and sail to the mouth of the Ister.
There he bade them throw a bridge across the stream and await his
coming. The Ionians, Aeolians, and Hellespontians were the nations
which furnished the chief strength of his navy. So the fleet, threading
the Cyanean Isles, proceeded straight to the Ister, and, mounting
the river to the point where its channels separate, a distance of
two days' voyage from the sea, yoked the neck of the stream. Meantime
Darius, who had crossed the Bosphorus by the bridge over it, marched
through Thrace; and happening upon the sources of the Tearus, pitched
his camp and made a stay of three days.
Now the Tearus is said by those who dwell near it, to be the most
healthful of all streams, and to cure, among other diseases, the scab
either in man or beast. Its sources, which are eight and thirty in
number, all flowing from the same rock, are in part cold, in part
hot. They lie at an equal distance from the town of Heraeum near Perinthus,
and Apollonia on the Euxine, a two days' journey from each. This river,
the Tearus, is a tributary of the Contadesdus, which runs into the
Agrianes, and that into the Hebrus. The Hebrus empties itself into
the sea near the city of Aenus.
Here then, on the banks of the Tearus, Darius stopped and pitched
his camp. The river charmed him so, that he caused a pillar to be
erected in this place also, with an inscription to the following effect:
"The fountains of the Tearus afford the best and most beautiful water
of all rivers: they were visited, on his march into Scythia, by the
best and most beautiful of men, Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of
the Persians, and of the whole continent." Such was the inscription
which he set up at this place.
Marching thence, he came to a second river, called the Artiscus, which
flows through the country of the Odrysians. Here he fixed upon a certain
spot, where every one of his soldiers should throw a stone as he passed
by. When his orders were obeyed, Darius continued his march, leaving
behind him great hills formed of the stones cast by his troops.
Before arriving at the Ister, the first people whom he subdued were
the Getae, who believe in their immortality. The Thracians of Salmydessus,
and those who dwelt above the cities of Apollonia and Mesembria- the
Scyrmiadae and Nipsaeans, as they are called- gave themselves up to
Darius without a struggle; but the Getae obstinately defending themselves,
were forthwith enslaved, notwithstanding that they are the noblest
as well as the most just of all the Thracian tribes.
The belief of the Getae in respect of immortality is the following.
They think that they do not really die, but that when they depart
this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some
among them. To this god every five years they send a messenger, who
is chosen by lot out of the whole nation, and charged to bear him
their several requests. Their mode of sending him is this. A number
of them stand in order, each holding in his hand three darts; others
take the man who is to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by his
hands and feet, toss him into the air so that he falls upon the points
of the weapons. If he is pierced and dies, they think that the god
is propitious to them; but if not, they lay the fault on the messenger,
who (they say) is a wicked man: and so they choose another to send
away. The messages are given while the man is still alive. This same
people, when it lightens and thunders, aim their arrows at the sky,
uttering threats against the god; and they do not believe that there
is any god but their own.
I am told by the Greeks who dwell on the shores of the Hellespont
and the Pontus, that this Zalmoxis was in reality a man, that he lived
at Samos, and while there was the slave of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.
After obtaining his freedom he grew rich, and leaving Samos, returned
to his own country. The Thracians at that time lived in a wretched
way, and were a poor ignorant race; Zalmoxis, therefore, who by his
commerce with the Greeks, and especially with one who was by no means
their most contemptible philosopher, Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted
with the Ionic mode of life and with manners more refined than those
current among his countrymen, had a chamber built, in which from time
to time he received and feasted all the principal Thracians, using
the occasion to teach them that neither he, nor they, his boon companions,
nor any of their posterity would ever perish, but that they would
all go to a place where they would live for aye in the enjoyment of
every conceivable good. While he was acting in this way, and holding
this kind of discourse, he was constructing an apartment underground,
into which, when it was completed, he withdrew, vanishing suddenly
from the eyes of the Thracians, who greatly regretted his loss, and
mourned over him as one dead. He meanwhile abode in his secret chamber
three full years, after which he came forth from his concealment,
and showed himself once more to his countrymen, who were thus brought
to believe in the truth of what he had taught them. Such is the account
of the Greeks.
I for my part neither put entire faith in this story of Zalmoxis and
his underground chamber, nor do I altogether discredit it: but I believe
Zalmoxis to have lived long before the time of Pythagoras. Whether
there was ever really a man of the name, or whether Zalmoxis is nothing
but a native god of the Getae, I now bid him farewell. As for the
Getae themselves, the people who observe the practices described above,
they were now reduced by the Persians, and accompanied the army of
Darius.
When Darius, with his land forces, reached the Ister, he made his
troops cross the stream, and after all were gone over gave orders
to the Ionians to break the bridge, and follow him with the whole
naval force in his land march. They were about to obey his command,
when the general of the Mytilenaeans, Coes son of Erxander, having
first asked whether it was agreeable to the king to listen to one
who wished to speak his mind, addressed him in the words following:-
"Thou art about, Sire, to attack a country no part of which is cultivated,
and wherein there is not a single inhabited city. Keep this bridge,
then, as it is, and leave those who built it to watch over it. So
if we come up with the Scythians and succeed against them as we could
wish, we may return by this route; or if we fail of finding them,
our retreat will still be secure. For I have no fear lest the Scythians
defeat us in battle, but my dread is lest we be unable to discover
them, and suffer loss while we wander about their territory. And now,
mayhap, it will be said, I advise thee thus in the hope of being myself
allowed to remain behind; but in truth I have no other design than
to recommend the course which seems to me the best; nor will I consent
to be among those left behind, but my resolve is, in any case, to
follow thee." The advice of Coes pleased Darius highly, who thus replied
to him:- "Dear Lesbian, when I am safe home again in my palace, be
sure thou come to me, and with good deeds will I recompense thy good
words of to-day."
Having so said, the king took a leathern thong, and tying sixty knots
in it, called together the Ionian tyrants, and spoke thus to them:-
"Men of Ionia, my former commands to you concerning the bridge are
now withdrawn. See, here is a thong: take it, and observe my bidding
with respect to it. From the time that I leave you to march forward
into Scythia, untie every day one of the knots. If I do not return
before the last day to which the knots will hold out, then leave your
station, and sail to your several homes. Meanwhile, understand that
my resolve is changed, and that you are to guard the bridge with all
care, and watch over its safety and preservation. By so doing ye will
oblige me greatly." When Darius had thus spoken, he set out on his
march with all speed.
Before you come to Scythia, on the sea coast, lies Thrace. The land
here makes a sweep, and then Scythia begins, the Ister falling into
the sea at this point with its mouth facing the east. Starting from
the Ister I shall now describe the measurements of the seashore of
Scythia. Immediately that the Ister is crossed, Old Scythia begins,
and continues as far as the city called Carcinitis, fronting towards
the south wind and the mid-day. Here upon the same sea, there lies
a mountainous tract projecting into the Pontus, which is inhabited
by the Tauri, as far as what is called the Rugged Chersonese, which
runs out into the sea upon the east. For the boundaries of Scythia
extend on two sides to two different seas, one upon the south, and
the other towards the east, as is also the case with Attica. And the
Tauri occupy a position in Scythia like that which a people would
hold in Attica, who, being foreigners and not Athenians, should inhabit
the high land of Sunium, from Thoricus to the township of Anaphlystus,
if this tract projected into the sea somewhat further than it does.
Such, to compare great things with small, is the Tauric territory.
For the sake of those who may not have made the voyage round these
parts of Attica, I will illustrate in another way. It is as if in
Iapygia a line were drawn from Port Brundusium to Tarentum, and a
people different from the Iapygians inhabited the promontory. These
two instances may suggest a number of others where the shape of the
land closely resembles that of Taurica.
Beyond this tract, we find the Scythians again in possession of the
country above the Tauri and the parts bordering on the eastern sea,
as also of the whole district lying west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus
and the Palus Maeotis, as far as the river Tanais, which empties itself
into that lake at its upper end. As for the inland boundaries of Scythia,
if we start from the Ister, we find it enclosed by the following tribes,
first the Agathyrsi, next the Neuri, then the Androphagi, and last
of all, the Melanchaeni.
Scythia then, which is square in shape, and has two of its sides reaching
down to the sea, extends inland to the same distance that it stretches
along the coast, and is equal every way. For it is a ten days' journey
from the Ister to the Borysthenes, and ten more from the Borysthenes
to the Palus Maeotis, while the distance from the coast inland to
the country of the Melanchaeni, who dwell above Scythia, is a journey
of twenty days. I reckon the day's journey at two hundred furlongs.
Thus the two sides which run straight inland are four thousand furlongs
each, and the transverse sides at right angles to these are also of
the same length, which gives the full size of Scythia.
The Scythians, reflecting on their situation, perceived that they
were not strong enough by themselves to contend with the army of Darius
in open fight. They, therefore, sent envoys to the neighbouring nations,
whose kings had already met, and were in consultation upon the advance
of so vast a host. Now they who had come together were the kings of
the Tauri, the Agathyrsi, the Neuri, the Androphagi, the Melanchaeni,
the Geloni, the Budini, and the Sauromatae.
The Tauri have the following customs. They offer in sacrifice to the
Virgin all shipwrecked persons, and all Greeks compelled to put into
their ports by stress of weather. The mode of sacrifice is this. After
the preparatory ceremonies, they strike the victim on the head with
a club. Then, according to some accounts, they hurl the trunk from
the precipice whereon the temple stands, and nail the head to a cross.
Others grant that the head is treated in this way, but deny that the
body is thrown down the cliff- on the contrary, they say, it is buried.
The goddess to whom these sacrifices are offered the Tauri themselves
declare to be Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon. When they take
prisoners in war they treat them in the following way. The man who
has taken a captive cuts off his head, and carrying it to his home,
fixes it upon a tall pole, which he elevates above his house, most
commonly over the chimney. The reason that the heads are set up so
high, is (it is said) in order that the whole house may be under their
protection. These people live entirely by war and plundering.
The Agathyrsi are a race of men very luxurious, and very fond of wearing
gold on their persons. They have wives in common, that so they may
be all brothers, and, as members of one family, may neither envy nor
hate one another. In other respects their customs approach nearly
to those of the Thracians.
The Neurian customs are like the Scythian. One generation before the
attack of Darius they were driven from their land by a huge multitude
of serpents which invaded them. Of these some were produced in their
own country, while others, and those by far the greater number, came
in from the deserts on the north. Suffering grievously beneath this
scourge, they quitted their homes, and took refuge with the Budini.
It seems that these people are conjurers: for both the Scythians and
the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say that every Neurian once a year
becomes a wolf for a few days, at the end of which time he is restored
to his proper shape. Not that I believe this, but they constantly
affirm it to be true, and are even ready to back their assertion with
an oath.
The manners of the Androphagi are more savage than those of any other
race. They neither observe justice, nor are governed, by any laws.
They are nomads, and their dress is Scythian; but the language which
they speak is peculiar to themselves. Unlike any other nation in these
parts, they are cannibals.
The Melanchaeni wear, all of them, black cloaks, and from this derive
the name which they bear. Their customs are Scythic.
The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep blue
eyes, and bright red hair. There is a city in their territory, called
Gelonus, which is surrounded with a lofty wall, thirty furlongs each
way, built entirely of wood. All the houses in the place and all the
temples are of the same material. Here are temples built in honour
of the Grecian gods, and adorned after the Greek fashion with images,
altars, and shrines, all in wood. There is even a festival, held every
third year in honour of Bacchus, at which the natives fall into the
Bacchic fury. For the fact is that the Geloni were anciently Greeks,
who, being driven out of the factories along the coast, fled to the
Budini and took up their abode with them. They still speak a language
half Greek, half Scythian.
The Budini, however, do not speak the same language as the Geloni,
nor is their mode of life the same. They are the aboriginal people
of the country, and are nomads; unlike any of the neighbouring races,
they eat lice. The Geloni on the contrary, are tillers of the soil,
eat bread, have gardens, and both in shape and complexion are quite
different from the Budini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these latter
Geloni; but it is a mistake to give them the name. Their country is
thickly planted with trees of all manner of kinds. In the very woodiest
part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy ground with reeds
growing on it. Here otters are caught, and beavers, with another sort
of animal which has a square face. With the skins of this last the
natives border their capotes: and they also get from them a remedy,
which is of virtue in diseases of the womb.
It is reported of the Sauromatae, that when the Greeks fought with
the Amazons, whom the Scythians call Oior-pata or "man-slayers," as
it may be rendered, Oior being Scythic for "man," and pata for "to
slay"- It is reported, I say, that the Greeks after gaining the battle
of the Thermodon, put to sea, taking with them on board three of their
vessels all the Amazons whom they had made prisoners; and that these
women upon the voyage rose up against the crews, and massacred them
to a man. As however they were quite strange to ships, and did not
know how to use either rudder, sails, or oars, they were carried,
after the death of the men, where the winds and the waves listed.
At last they reached the shores of the Palus Maeotis and came to a
place called Cremni or "the Cliffs," which is in the country of the
free Scythians. Here they went ashore, and proceeded by land towards
the inhabited regions; the first herd of horses which they fell in
with they seized, and mounting upon their backs, fell to plundering
the Scythian territory.
The Scyths could not tell what to make of the attack upon them- the
dress, the language, the nation itself, were alike unknown whence
the enemy had come even, was a marvel. Imagining, however, that they
were all men of about the same age, they went out against them, and
fought a battle. Some of the bodies of the slain fell into their hands,
whereby they discovered the truth. Hereupon they deliberated, and
made a resolve to kill no more of them, but to send against them a
detachment of their youngest men, as near as they could guess equal
to the women in number, with orders to encamp in their neighbourhood,
and do as they saw them do- when the Amazons advanced against them,
they were to retire, and avoid a fight- when they halted, the young
men were to approach and pitch their camp near the camp of the enemy.
All this they did on account of their strong desire to obtain children
from so notable a race.
So the youths departed, and obeyed the orders which had been given
them. The Amazons soon found out that they had not come to do them
any harm; and so they on their part ceased to offer the Scythians
any molestation. And now day after day the camps approached nearer
to one another; both parties led the same life, neither having anything
but their arms and horses, so that they were forced to support themselves
by hunting and pillage.
At last an incident brought two of them together- the man easily gained
the good graces of the woman, who bade him by signs (for they did
not understand each other's language) to bring a friend the next day
to the spot where they had met- promising on her part to bring with
her another woman. He did so, and the woman kept her word. When the
rest of the youths heard what had taken place, they also sought and
gained the favour of the other Amazons.
The two camps were then joined in one, the Scythians living with the
Amazons as their wives; and the men were unable to learn the tongue
of the women, but the women soon caught up the tongue of the men.
When they could thus understand one another, the Scyths addressed
the Amazons in these words- "We have parents, and properties, let
us therefore give up this mode of life, and return to our nation,
and live with them. You shall be our wives there no less than here,
and we promise you to have no others." But the Amazons said- "We could
not live with your women- our customs are quite different from theirs.
To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride the horse, these
are our arts of womanly employments we know nothing. Your women, on
the contrary, do none of these things; but stay at home in their waggons,
engaged in womanish tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do anything.
We should never agree together. But if you truly wish to keep us as
your wives, and would conduct yourselves with strict justice towards
us, go you home to your parents, bid them give you your inheritance,
and then come back to us, and let us and you live together by ourselves."
The youths approved of the advice, and followed it. They went and
got the portion of goods which fell to them, returned with it, and
rejoined their wives, who then addressed them in these words following:-
"We are ashamed, and afraid to live in the country where we now are.
Not only have we stolen you from your fathers, but we have done great
damage to Scythia by our ravages. As you like us for wives, grant
the request we make of you. Let us leave this country together, and
go and dwell beyond the Tanais." Again the youths complied.
Crossing the Tanais they journeyed eastward a distance of three days'
march from that stream, and again northward a distance of three days'
march from the Palus Maeotis. Here they came to the country where
they now live, and took up their abode in it. The women of the Sauromatae
have continued from that day to the present to observe their ancient
customs, frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands, sometimes
even unaccompanied; in war taking the field; and wearing the very
same dress as the men.
The Sauromatae speak the language of Scythia, but have never talked
it correctly, because the Amazons learnt it imperfectly at the first.
Their marriage-law lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has
killed a man in battle. Sometimes it happens that a woman dies unmarried
at an advanced age, having never been able in her whole lifetime to
fulfil the condition.
The envoys of the Scythians, on being introduced into the presence
of the kings of these nations, who were assembled to deliberate, made
it known to them that the Persian, after subduing the whole of the
other continent, had thrown a bridge over the strait of the Bosphorus,
and crossed into the continent of Europe, where he had reduced the
Thracians, and was now making a bridge over the Ister, his aim being
to bring under his sway all Europe also. "Stand ye not aloof then
from this contest," they went on to say, "look not on tamely while
we are perishing- but make common cause with us, and together let
us meet the enemy. If ye refuse, we must yield to the pressure, and
either quit our country, or make terms with the invaders. For what
else is left for us to do, if your aid be withheld from us? The blow,
be sure, will not light on you more gently upon this account. The
Persian comes against you no less than against us: and will not be
content, after we are conquered, to leave you in peace. We can bring
strong proof of what we here advance. Had the Persian leader indeed
come to avenge the wrongs which he suffered at our hands when we enslaved
his people, and to war on us only, he would have been bound to march
straight upon Scythia, without molesting any nation by the way. Then
it would have been plain to all that Scythia alone was aimed at. But
now, what has his conduct been? From the moment of his entrance into
Europe, he has subjugated without exception every nation that lay
in his path. All the tribes of the Thracians have been brought under
his sway, and among them even our next neighbours, the Getae."
The assembled princes of the nations, after hearing all that the Scythians
had to say, deliberated. At the end opinion was divided- the kings
of the Geloni, Budini, and Sauromatae were of accord, and pledged
themselves to give assistance to the Scythians; but the Agathyrsian
and Neurian princes, together with the sovereigns of the Androphagi,
the Melanchaeni, and the Tauri, replied to their request as follows:-
"If you had not been the first to wrong the Persians, and begin the
war, we should have thought the request you make just;- we should
then have complied with your wishes, and joined our arms with yours.
Now, however, the case stands thus- you, independently of us, invaded
the land of the Persians, and so long as God gave you the power, lorded
it over them: raised up now by the same God, they are come to do to
you the like. We, on our part, did no wrong to these men in the former
war, and will not be the first to commit wrong now. If they invade
our land, and begin aggressions upon us, we will not suffer them;
but, till we see this come to pass, we will remain at home. For we
believe that the Persians are not come to attack us, but to punish
those who are guilty of first injuring them."
When this reply reached the Scythians, they resolved, as the neighbouring
nations refused their alliance, that they would not openly venture
on any pitched battle with the enemy, but would retire before them,
driving off their herds, choking up all the wells and springs as they
retreated, and leaving the whole country bare of forage. They divided
themselves into three bands, one of which, namely, that commanded
by Scopasis, it was agreed should be joined by the Sauromatae, and
if the Persians advanced in the direction of the Tanais, should retreat
along the shores of the Palus Maeotis and make for that river; while
if the Persians retired, they should at once pursue and harass them.
The two other divisions, the principal one under the command of Idanthyrsus,
and the third, of which Taxacis was king, were to unite in one, and,
joined by the detachments of the Geloni and Budini, were, like the
others, to keep at the distance of a day's march from the Persians,
falling back as they advanced, and doing the same as the others. And
first, they were to take the direction of the nations which had refused
to join the alliance, and were to draw the war upon them: that so,
if they would not of their own free will engage in the contest, they
might by these means be forced into it. Afterwards, it was agreed
that they should retire into their own land, and, should it on deliberation
appear to them expedient, join battle with the enemy.
When these measures had been determined on, the Scythians went out
to meet the army of Darius, sending on in front as scouts the fleetest
of their horsemen. Their waggons wherein their women and their children
lived, and all their cattle, except such a number as was wanted for
food, which they kept with them, were made to precede them in their
retreat, and departed, with orders to keep marching, without change
of course, to the north.
The scouts of the Scythians found the Persian host advanced three
days' march from the Ister, and immediately took the lead of them
at the distance of a day's march, encamping from time to time, and
destroying all that grow on the ground. The Persians no sooner caught
sight of the Scythian horse than they pursued upon their track, while
the enemy retired before them. The pursuit of the Persians was directed
towards the single division of the Scythian army, and thus their line
of march was eastward toward the Tanais. The Scyths crossed the river
and the Persians after them, still in pursuit. in this way they passed
through the country of the Sauromatae, and entered that of the Budini.
As long as the march of the Persian army lay through the countries
of the Scythians and Sauromatae, there was nothing which they could
damage, the land being waste and barren; but on entering the territories
of the Budini, they came upon the wooden fortress above mentioned,
which was deserted by its inhabitants and left quite empty of everything.
This place they burnt to the ground; and having so done, again pressed
forward on the track of the retreating Scythians, till, having passed
through the entire country of the Budini, they reached the desert,
which has no inhabitants, and extends a distance of seven days' journey
above the Budinian territory. Beyond this desert dwell the Thyssagetae,
out of whose land four great streams flow. These rivers all traverse
the country of the Maeotians, and fall into the Palus Maeotis. Their
names are the Lycus, the Oarus, the Tanais, and the Syrgis.
When Darius reached the desert, he paused from his pursuit, and halted
his army upon the Oarus. Here he built eight large forts, at an equal
distance from one another, sixty furlongs apart or thereabouts, the
ruins of which were still remaining in my day. During the time that
he was so occupied, the Scythians whom he had been following made
a circuit by the higher regions, and re-entered Scythia. On their
complete disappearance, Darius, seeing nothing more of them, left
his forts half finished, and returned towards the west. He imagined
that the Scythians whom he had seen were the entire nation, and that
they had fled in that direction.
He now quickened his march, and entering Scythia, fell in with the
two combined divisions of the Scythian army, and instantly gave them
chase. They kept to their plan of retreating before him at the distance
of a day's march; and, he still following them hotly, they led him,
as had been previously settled, into the territories of the nations
that had refused to become their allies, and first of all into the
country of the Melanchaeni. Great disturbance was caused among this
people by the invasion of the Scyths first, and then of the Persians.
So, having harassed them after this sort, the Scythians led the way
into the land of the Androphagi, with the same result as before; and
thence passed onwards into Neuris, where their coming likewise spread
dismay among the inhabitants. Still retreating they approached the
Agathyrsi; but this people, which had witnessed the flight and terror
of their neighbours, did not wait for the Scyths to invade them, but
sent a herald to forbid them to cross their borders, and to forewarn
them, that, if they made the attempt, it would be resisted by force
of arms. The Agathyrsi then proceeded to the frontier, to defend their
country against the invaders. As for the other nations, the Melanchaeni,
the Androphagi, and the Neuri, instead of defending themselves, when
the Scyths and Persians overran their lands, they forgot their threats
and fled away in confusion to the deserts lying towards the north.
The Scythians, when the Agathyrsi forbade them to enter their country,
refrained; and led the Persians back from the Neurian district into
their own land.
This had gone on so long, and seemed so interminable, that Darius
at last sent a horseman to Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king, with the
following message:- "Thou strange man, why dost thou keep on flying
before me, when there are two things thou mightest do so easily? If
thou deemest thyself able to resist my arms, cease thy wanderings
and come, let us engage in battle. Or if thou art conscious that my
strength is greater than thine- even so thou shouldest cease to run
away- thou hast but to bring thy lord earth and water, and to come
at once to a conference."
To this message Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king, replied:- "This is
my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly from them. I have not done
so in times past, nor do I now fly from thee. There is nothing new
or strange in what I do; I only follow my common mode of life in peaceful
years. Now I will tell thee why I do not at once join battle with
thee. We Scythians have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which
might induce us, through fear of their being taken or ravaged, to
be in any hurry to fight with you. If, however, you must needs come
to blows with us speedily, look you now, there are our fathers' tombs-
seek them out, and attempt to meddle with them- then ye shall see
whether or no we will fight with you. Till ye do this, be sure we
shall not join battle, unless it pleases us. This is my answer to
the challenge to fight. As for lords, I acknowledge only Jove my ancestor,
and Vesta, the Scythian queen. Earth and water, the tribute thou askedst,
I do not send, but thou shalt soon receive more suitable gifts. Last
of all, in return for thy calling thyself my lord, I say to thee,
'Go weep.'" (This is what men mean by the Scythian mode of speech.)
So the herald departed, bearing this message to Darius.
When the Scythian kings heard the name of slavery they were filled
with rage, and despatched the division under Scopasis to which the
Sauromatae were joined, with orders that they should seek a conference
with the Ionians, who had been left at the Ister to guard the bridge.
Meanwhile the Scythians who remained behind resolved no longer to
lead the Persians hither and thither about their country, but to fall
upon them whenever they should be at their meals. So they waited till
such times, and then did as they had determined. In these combats
the Scythian horse always put to flight the horse of the enemy; these
last, however, when routed, fell back upon their foot, who never failed
to afford them support; while the Scythians, on their side, as soon
as they had driven the horse in, retired again, for fear of the foot.
By night too the Scythians made many similar attacks.
There was one very strange thing which greatly advantaged the Persians,
and was of equal disservice to the Scyths, in these assaults on the
Persian camp. This was the braying of the asses and the appearance
of the mules. For, as I observed before, the land of the Scythians
produces neither ass nor mule, and contains no single specimen of
either animal, by reason of the cold. So, when the asses brayed, they
frightened the Scythian cavalry; and often, in the middle of a charge,
the horses, hearing the noise made by the asses, would take fright
and wheel round, pricking up their ears, and showing astonishment.
This was owing to their having never heard the noise, or seen the
form, of the animal before: and it was not without some little influence
on the progress of the war.
The Scythians, when they perceived signs that the Persians were becoming
alarmed, took steps to induce them not to quit Scythia, in the hope,
if they stayed, of inflicting on them the greater injury, when their
supplies should altogether fail. To effect this, they would leave
some of their cattle exposed with the herdsmen, while they themselves
moved away to a distance: the Persians would make a foray, and take
the beasts, whereupon they would be highly elated.
This they did several times, until at last Darius was at his wits'
end; hereon the Scythian princes, understanding how matters stood,
despatched a herald to the Persian camp with presents for the king:
these were, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The Persians
asked the bearer to tell them what these gifts might mean, but he
made answer that he had no orders except to deliver them, and return
again with all speed. If the Persians were wise, he added, they would
find out the meaning for themselves. So when they heard this, they
held a council to consider the matter.
Darius gave it as his opinion that the Scyths intended a surrender
of themselves and their country, both land and water, into his hands.
This he conceived to be the meaning of the gifts, because the mouse
is an inhabitant of the earth, and eats the same food as man, while
the frog passes his life in the water; the bird bears a great resemblance
to the horse, and the arrows might signify the surrender of all their
power. To the explanation of Darius, Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators
against the Magus, opposed another which was as follows:- "Unless,
Persians, ye can turn into birds and fly up into the sky, or become
mice and burrow under the ground, or make yourselves frogs, and take
refuge in the fens, ye will never make escape from this land, but
die pierced by our arrows. Such were meanings which the Persians assigned
to the gifts.
The single division of the Scyths, which in the early part of the
war had been appointed to keep guard about the Palus Maeotis, and
had now been sent to get speech of the Ionians stationed at the Ister,
addressed them, on reaching the bridge, in these words- "Men of Ionia,
we bring you freedom, if ye will only do as we recommend. Darius,
we understand, enjoined you to keep your guard here at this bridge
just sixty days; then, if he did not appear, you were to return home.
Now, therefore, act so as to be free from blame, alike in his sight,
and in ours. Tarry here the appointed time, and at the end go your
ways." Having said this, and received a promise from the Ionians to
do as they desired, the Scythians hastened back with all possible
speed.
After the sending of the gifts to Darius, the part of the Scythian
army which had not marched to the Ister, drew out in battle array
horse and foot against the Persians, and seemed about to come to an
engagement. But as they stood in battle array, it chanced that a hare
started up between them and the Persians, and set to running; when
immediately all the Scyths who saw it, rushed off in pursuit, with
great confusion and loud cries and shouts. Darius, hearing the noise,
inquired the cause of it, and was told that the Scythians were all
engaged in hunting a hare. On this he turned to those with whom he
was wont to converse, and said:- "These men do indeed despise us utterly:
and now I see that Gobryas was right about the Scythian gifts. As,
therefore, his opinion is now mine likewise, it is time we form some
wise plan whereby we may secure ourselves a safe return to our homes."
"Ah! sire," Gobryas rejoined, "I was well nigh sure, ere I came here,
that this was an impracticable race- since our coming I am yet more
convinced of it, especially now that I see them making game of us.
My advice is, therefore, that, when night falls, we light our fires
as we are wont to do at other times, and leaving behind us on some
pretext that portion of our army which is weak and unequal to hardship,
taking care also to leave our asses tethered, retreat from Scythia,
before our foes march forward to the Ister and destroy the bridge,
or the Ionians come to any resolution which may lead to our ruin."
So Gobryas advised; and when night came, Darius followed his counsel,
and leaving his sick soldiers, and those whose loss would be of least
account, with the asses also tethered about the camp, marched away.
The asses were left that their noise might be heard: the men, really
because they were sick and useless, but under the pretence that he
was about to fall upon the Scythians with the flower of his troops,
and that they meanwhile were to guard his camp for him. Having thus
declared his plans to the men whom he was deserting, and having caused
the fires to be lighted, Darius set forth, and marched hastily towards
the Ister. The asses, aware of the departure of the host, brayed louder
than ever; and the Scythians, hearing the sound, entertained no doubt
of the Persians being still in the same place.
When day dawned, the men who had been left behind, perceiving that
they were betrayed by Darius, stretched out their hands towards the
Scythians, and spoke as. befitted their situation. The enemy no sooner
heard, than they quickly joined all their troops in one, and both
portions of the Scythian army- alike that which consisted of a single
division, and that made up of two- accompanied by all their allies,
the Sauromatae, the Budini, and the Geloni, set off in pursuit, and
made straight for the Ister. As, however, the Persian army was chiefly
foot, and had no knowledge of the routes, which are not cut out in
Scythia; while the Scyths were all horsemen and well acquainted with
the shortest way; it so happened that the two armies missed one another,
and the Scythians, getting far ahead of their adversaries, came first
to the bridge. Finding that the Persians were not yet arrived, they
addressed the Ionians, who were aboard their ships, in these words:-
"Men of Ionia, the number of your days is out, and ye do wrong to
remain. Fear doubtless has kept you here hitherto: now, however, you
may safely break the bridge, and hasten back to your homes, rejoicing
that you are free, and thanking for it the gods and the Scythians.
Your former lord and master we undertake so to handle, that he will
never again make war upon any one."
The Ionians now held a council. Miltiades the Athenian, who was king
of the Chersonesites upon the Hellespont, and their commander at the
Ister, recommended the other generals to do as the Scythians wished,
and restore freedom to Ionia. But Histiaeus the Milesian opposed this
advice. "It is through Darius," he said, "that we enjoy our thrones
in our several states. If his power be overturned, I cannot continue
lord of Miletus, nor ye of your cities. For there is not one of them
which will not prefer democracy to kingly rule." Then the other captains,
who, till Histiaeus spoke, were about to vote with Miltiades, changed
their minds, and declared in favour of the last speaker.
The following were the voters on this occasion- all of them men who
stood high in the esteem of the Persian king: the tyrants of the Hellespont-
Daphnis of Abydos, Hippoclus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium,
Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of Cyzicus, and Ariston of
Byzantium; the Ionian princes- Strattis of Chios, Aeaces of Samos,
Laodamas of Phocaea, and Histiaeus of Miletus, the man who had opposed
Miltiades. Only one Aeolian of note was present, to wit, Aristagoras
of Cyme.
Having resolved to follow the advice of Histiaeus, the Greek leaders
further determined to speak and act as follows. In order to appear
to the Scythians to be doing something, when in fact they were doing
nothing of consequence, and likewise to prevent them from forcing
a passage across the Ister by the bridge, they resolved to break up
the part of the bridge which abutted on Scythia, to the distance of
a bowshot from the river bank; and to assure the Scythians, while
the demolition was proceeding, that there was nothing which they would
not do to pleasure them. Such were the additions made to the resolution
of Histiaeus; and then Histiaeus himself stood forth and made answer
to the Scyths in the name of all the Greeks.- "Good is the advice
which ye have brought us, Scythians, and well have ye done to come
here with such speed. Your efforts have now put us into the right
path; and our efforts shall not be wanting to advance your cause.
Your own eyes see that we are engaged in breaking the bridge; and,
believe us, we will work zealously to procure our own freedom. Meantime,
while we labour here at our task, be it your business to seek them
out, and, when found, for our sakes, as well as your own, to visit
them with the vengeance which they so well deserve."
Again the Scyths put faith in the promises of the Ionian chiefs, and
retraced their steps, hoping to fall in with the Persians. They missed,
however, the enemy's whole line of march; their own former acts being
to blame for it. Had they not ravaged all the pasturages of that region,
and filled in all the wells, they would have easily found the Persians
whenever they chose. But, as it turned out, the measures which seemed
to them so wisely planned were exactly what caused their failure.
They took a route where water was to be found and fodder could be
got for their horses, and on this track sought their adversaries,
expecting that they too would retreat through regions where these
things were to be obtained. The Persians, however, kept strictly to
the line of their former march, never for a moment departing from
it; and even so gained the bridge with difficulty. It was night when
they arrived, and their terror, when they found the bridge broken
up, was great; for they thought that perhaps the Ionians had deserted
them.
Now there was in the army of Darius a certain man, an Egyptian, who
had a louder voice than any other man in the world. This person was
bid by Darius to stand at the water's edge, and call Histiaeus the
Milesian. The fellow did as he was bid; and Histiaeus, hearing him
at the very first summons, brought the fleet to assist in conveying
the army across, and once more made good the bridge.
By these means the Persians escaped from Scythia, while the Scyths
sought for them in vain, again missing their track. And hence the
Scythians are accustomed to say of the Ionians, by way of reproach,
that, if they be looked upon as freemen, they are the basest and most
dastardly of all mankind- but if they be considered as under servitude,
they are the faithfullest of slaves, and the most fondly at. to their
lords.
Darius, having passed through Thrace, reached Sestos in the Chersonese,
whence he crossed by the help of his fleet into Asia, leaving a Persian,
named Megabazus, commander on the European side. This was the man
on whom Darius once conferred special honour by a compliment which
he paid him before all the Persians. was about to eat some pomegranates,
and had opened the first, when his brother Artabanus asked him "what
he would like to have in as great plenty as the seeds of the pomegranate?"
Darius answered- "Had I as many men like Megabazus as there are seeds
here, it would please me better than to be lord of Greece." Such was
the compliment wherewith Darius honoured the general to whom at this
time he gave the command of the troops left in Europe, amounting in
all to some eighty thousand men.
This same Megabazus got himself an undying remembrance among the Hellespontians,
by a certain speech which he made. It came to his knowledge, while
he was staying at Byzantium, that the Chalcedonians made their settlement
seventeen years earlier than the Byzantines. "Then," said he, "the
Chalcedonians must at that time have been labouring under blindness-
otherwise, when so far more excellent a site was open to them, they
would never have chosen one so greatly inferior." Megabazus now, having
been appointed to take the command upon the Hellespont, employed himself
in the reduction of all those states which had not of their own accord
joined the Medes.
About this very time another great expedition was undertaken against
Libya, on a pretext which I will relate when I have premised certain
particulars. The descendants of the Argonauts in the third generation,
driven out of Lemnos by the Pelasgi who carried off the Athenian women
from Brauron, took ship and went to Lacedaemon, where, seating themselves
on Mount Taygetum, they proceeded to kindle their fires. The Lacedaemonians,
seeing this, sent a herald to inquire of them "who they were, and
from what region they had come"; whereupon they made answer, "that
they were Minyae, sons of the heroes by whom the ship Argo was manned;
for these persons had stayed awhile in Lemnos, and had there become
their progenitors." On hearing this account of their descent, the
Lacedaemonians sent to them a second time, and asked "what was their
object in coming to Lacedaemon, and there kindling their fires?" They
answered, "that, driven from their own land by the Pelasgi, they had
come, as was most reasonable, to their fathers; and their wish was
to dwell with them in their country, partake their privileges, and
obtain allotments of land. It seemed good to the Lacedaemonians to
receive the Minyae among them on their own terms; to assign them lands,
and enrol them in their tribes. What chiefly moved them to this was
the consideration that the sons of Tyndarus had sailed on board the
Argo. The Minyae, on their part, forthwith married Spartan wives,
and gave the wives, whom they had married in Lemnos, to Spartan husbands.
However, before much time had elapsed, the Minyae began to wax wanton,
demanded to share the throne, and committed other impieties: whereupon
the Lacedaemonians passed on them sentence of death, and, seizing
them, cast them into prison. Now the Lacedaemonians never put criminals
to death in the daytime, but always at night. When the Minyae, accordingly,
were about to suffer, their wives, who were not only citizens, but
daughters of the chief men among the Spartans, entreated to be allowed
to enter the prison, and have some talk with their lords; and the
Spartans, not expecting any fraud from such a quarter, granted their
request. The women entered the prison. gave their own clothes to their
husbands, and received theirs in exchange: after which the Minyae,
dressed in their wives' garments, and thus passing for women, went
forth. Having effected their escape in this manner, they seated themselves
once more upon Taygetum.own land
It happened that at this very time Theras, son of Autesion (whose
father Tisamenus was the son of Thersander, and grandson of Polynices),
was about to lead out a colony from Lacedaemon This Theras, by birth
a Cadmeian, was uncle on the mother's side to the two sons of Aristodemus,
Procles and Eurysthenes, and, during their infancy, administered in
their right the royal power. When his nephews, however, on attaining
to man's estate, took the government, Theras, who could not bear to
be under the authority of others after he had wielded authority so
long himself, resolved to leave Sparta and cross the sea to join his
kindred. There were in the island now called Thera, but at that time
Calliste, certain descendants of Membliarus, the son of Poeciles,
a Phoenician. (For Cadmus, the son of Agenor, when he was sailing
in search of Europe, made a landing on this island; and, either because
the country pleased him, or because he had a purpose in so doing,
left there a number of Phoenicians, and with them his own kinsman
Membliarus. Calliste had been inhabited by this race for eight generations
of men, before the arrival of Theras from Lacedaemon.)
Theras now, having with him a certain number of men from each of the
tribes, was setting forth on his expedition hitherward. Far from intending
to drive out the former inhabitants, he regarded them as his near
kin, and meant to settle among them. It happened that just at this
time the Minyae, having escaped from their prison, had taken up their
station upon Mount Taygetum; and the Lacedaemonians, wishing to destroy
them, were considering what was best to be done, when Theras begged
their lives, undertaking to remove them from the territory. His prayer
being granted, he took ship, and sailed, with three triaconters, to
join the descendants of Membliarus. He was not, however, accompanied
by all the Minyae, but only by some few of them. The greater number
fled to the land of the Paroreats and Caucons, whom they drove out,
themselves occupying the region in six bodies, by which were afterwards
built the towns of Lepreum, Macistus, Phryxae, Pyrgus, Epium, and
Nudium; whereof the greater part were in my day demolished by the
Eleans.
The island was called Thera after the name of its founder. This same
Theras had a son, who refused to cross the sea with him; Theras therefore
left him behind, "a sheep," as he said, "among wolves." From this
speech his son came to be called Oeolycus, a name which afterwards
grew to be the only one by which he was known. This Oeolycus was the
father of Aegeus, from whom sprang the Aegidae, a great tribe in Sparta.
The men of this tribe lost at one time all their children, whereupon
they were bidden by an oracle to build a temple to the furies of Laius
and Oedipus; they complied, and the mortality ceased. The same thing
happened in Thera to the descendants of these men.
Thus far the history is delivered without variation both by the Theraeans
and the Lacedaemonians; but from this point we have only the Theraean
narrative. Grinus (they say), the son of Aesanius, a descendant of
Theras, and king of the island of Thera, went to Delphi to offer a
hecatomb on behalf of his native city. He was accompanied by a large
number of the citizens, and among the rest by Battus, the son of Polymnestus,
who belonged to the Minyan family of the Euphemidae. On Grinus consulting
the oracle about sundry matters, the Pythoness gave him for answer,
"that he should found a city in Libya." Grinus replied to this: "I,
O king! am too far advanced in years, and too inactive, for such a
work. Bid one of these youngsters undertake it." As he spoke, he pointed
towards Battus; and thus the matter rested for that time. When the
embassy returned to Thera, small account was taken of the oracle by
the Theraeans, as they were quite ignorant where Libya was, and were
not so venturesome as to send out a colony in the dark.
Seven years passed from the utterance of the oracle, and not a drop
of rain fell in Thera: all the trees in the island, except one, were
killed with the drought. The Theraeans upon this sent to Delphi, and
were reminded reproachfully that they had never colonised Libya. So,
as there was no help for it, they sent messengers to Crete, to inquire
whether any of the Cretans, or of the strangers sojourning among them,
had ever travelled as far as Libya: and these messengers of theirs,
in their wanderings about the island, among other places visited Itanus,
where they fell in with a man, whose name was Corobius, a dealer in
purple. In answer to their inquiries, he told them that contrary winds
had once carried him to Libya, where he had gone ashore on a certain
island which was named Platea. So they hired this man's services,
and took him back with them to Thera. A few persons then sailed from
Thera to reconnoitre. Guided by Corobius to the island of Platea,
they left him there with provisions for a certain number of months,
and returned home with all speed to give their countrymen an account
of the island.
During their absence, which was prolonged beyond the time that had
been agreed upon, Corobius provisions failed him. He was relieved,
however, after a while by a Samian vessel, under the command of a
man named Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was forced to put in
at Platea. The crew, informed by Corobius of all the circumstances,
left him sufficient food for a year. They themselves quitted the island;
and, anxious to reach Egypt, made sail in that direction, but were
carried out of their course by a gale of wind from the east. The storm
not abating, they were driven past the Pillars of Hercules, and at
last, by some special guiding providence, reached Tartessus. This
trading town was in those days a virgin port, unfrequented by the
merchants. The Samians, in consequence, made by the return voyage
a profit greater than any Greeks before their day, excepting Sostratus,
son of Laodamas, an Eginetan, with whom no one else can compare. From
the tenth part of their gains, amounting to six talents, the Samians
made a brazen vessel, in shape like an Argive wine-bowl, adorned with
the heads of griffins standing out in high relief. This bowl, supported
by three kneeling colossal figures in bronze, of the height of seven
cubits, was placed as an offering in the temple of Juno at Samos.
The aid given to Corobius was the original cause of that close friendship
which afterwards united the Cyrenaeans and Theraeans with the Samians.
The Theraeans who had left Corobius at Platea, when they reached Thera,
told their countrymen that they had colonised an island on the coast
of Libya. They of Thera, upon this, resolved that men should be sent
to join the colony from each of their seven districts, and that the
brothers in every family should draw lots to determine who were to
go. Battus was chosen to be king and leader of the colony. So these
men departed for Platea on board of two penteconters.
Such is the account which the Theraeans give. In the sequel of the
history their accounts tally with those of the people of Cyrene; but
in what they relate of Battus these two nations differ most widely.
The following is the Cyrenaic story. There was once a king named Etearchus,
who ruled over Axus, a city in Crete, and had a daughter named Phronima.
This girl's mother having died, Etearchus married a second wife; who
no sooner took up her abode in his house than she proved a true step-mother
to poor Phronima, always vexing her, and contriving against her every
sort of mischief. At last she taxed her with light conduct; and Etearchus,
persuaded by his wife that the charge was true, bethought himself
of a most barbarous mode of punishment. There was a certain Theraean,
named Themison, a merchant, living at Axus. This man Etearchus invited
to be his friend and guest, and then induced him to swear that he
would do him any service he might require. No sooner had he given
the promise, than the king fetched Phronima, and, delivering her into
his hands, told him to carry her away and throw her into the sea.
Hereupon Themison, full of indignation at the fraud whereby his oath
had been procured, dissolved forthwith the friendship, and, taking
the girl with him, sailed away from Crete. Having reached the open
main, to acquit himself of the obligation under which he was laid
by his oath to Etearchus, he fastened ropes about the damsel, and,
letting her down into the sea, drew her up again, and so made sail
for Thera.
At Thera, Polymnestus, one of the chief citizens of the place, took
Phronima to be his concubine. The fruit of this union was a son, who
stammered and had a lisp in his speech. According to the Cyrenaeans
and Theraeans the name given to the boy was Battus: in my opinion,
however, he was called at the first something else, and only got the
name of Battus after his arrival in Libya, assuming it either in consequence
of the words addressed to him by the Delphian oracle, or on account
of the office which he held. For, in the Libyan tongue, the word "Battus"
means "a king." And this, I think, was the reason the Pythoness addressed
him as she did: she said he was to be a king in Libya, and so she
used the Libyan word in speaking to him. For after he had grown to
man's estate, he made a journey to Delphi, to consult the oracle about
his voice; when, upon his putting his question, the Pythoness thus
replied to him:-
Battus, thou camest to ask of thy voice; but Phoebus Apollo
Bids thee establish a city in Libya, abounding in fleeces; which was
as if she had said in her own tongue, "King, thou camest to ask of
thy voice." Then he replied, "Mighty lord, I did indeed come hither
to consult thee about my voice, but thou speakest to me of quite other
matters, bidding me colonise Libya- an impossible thing! what power
have I? what followers?" Thus he spake, but he did not persuade the
Pythoness to give him any other response; so, when he found that she
persisted in her former answer, he left her speaking, and set out
on his return to Thera.
After a while, everything began to go wrong both with Battus and with
the rest of the Theraeans, whereupon these last, ignorant of the cause
of their sufferings, sent to Delphi to inquire for what reason they
were afflicted. The Pythoness in reply told them "that if they and
Battus would make a settlement at Cyrene in Libya, things would go
better with them." Upon this the Theraeans sent out Battus with two
penteconters, and with these he proceeded to Libya, but within a little
time, not knowing what else to do, the men returned and arrived off
Thera. The Theraeans, when they saw the vessels approaching, received
them with showers of missiles, would not allow them to come near the
shore, and ordered the men to sail back from whence they came. Thus
compelled to return, they settled on an island near the Libyan coast,
which (as I have already said) was called Platea. In size it is reported
to have been about equal to the city of Cyrene, as it now stands.
In this place they continued two years, but at the end of that time,
as their ill luck still followed them, they left the island to the
care of one of their number, and went in a body to Delphi, where they
made complaint at the shrine to the effect that, notwithstanding they
had colonised Libya, they prospered as poorly as before. Hereon the
Pythoness made them the following answer:-
Knowest thou better than I, fair Libya abounding in fleeces?
Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! clever Theraeans!
Battus and his friends, when they heard this, sailed back to Platea:
it was plain the god would not hold them acquitted of the colony till
they were absolutely in Libya. So, taking with them the man whom they
had left upon the island, they made a settlement on the mainland directly
opposite Platea, fixing themselves at a place called Aziris, which
is closed in on both sides by the most beautiful hills, and on one
side is washed by a river.
Here they remained six years, at the end of which time the Libyans
induced them to move, promising that they would lead them to a better
situation. So the Greeks left Aziris and were conducted by the Libyans
towards the west, their journey being so arranged, by the calculation
of their guides, that they passed in the night the most beautiful
district of that whole country, which is the region called Irasa.
The Libyans brought them to a spring, which goes by the name of Apollo's
fountain, and told them- "Here, Grecians, is the proper place for
you to settle; for here the sky leaks."
During the lifetime of Battus, the founder of the colony, who reigned
forty years, and during that of his son Arcesilaus, who reigned sixteen,
the Cyrenaeans continued at the same level, neither more nor fewer
in number than they were at the first. But in the reign of the third
king, Battus, surnamed the Happy, the advice of the Pythoness brought
Greeks from every quarter into Libya, to join the settlement. The
Cyrenaeans had offered to all comers a share in their lands; and the
oracle had spoken as follows:-
He that is backward to share in the pleasant Libyan acres,
Sooner or later, I warn him, will feel regret at his folly. Thus a
great multitude were collected together to Cyrene, and the Libyans
of the neighbourhood found themselves stripped of large portions of
their lands. So they, and their king Adicran, being robbed and insulted
by the Cyrenaeans, sent messengers to Egypt, and put themselves under
the rule of Apries, the Egyptian monarch; who, upon this, levied a
vast army of Egyptians, and sent them against Cyrene. The inhabitants
of that place left their walls and marched out in force to the district
of Irasa, where, near the spring called Theste, they engaged the Egyptian
host, and defeated it. The Egyptians, who had never before made trial
of the prowess of the Greeks, and so thought but meanly of them, were
routed with such slaughter that but a very few of them ever got back
home. For this reason, the subjects of Apries, who laid the blame
of the defeat on him, revolted from his authority.
This Battus left a son called Arcesilaus, who, when he came to the
throne, had dissensions with his brothers, which ended in their quitting
him and departing to another region of Libya, where, after consulting
among themselves, they founded the city, which is still called by
the name then given to it, Barca. At the same time they endeavoured
to induce the Libyans to revolt from Cyrene. Not long afterwards Arcesilaus
made an expedition against the Libyans who had received his brothers
and been prevailed upon to revolt; and they, fearing his power, fled
to their countrymen who dwelt towards the east. Arcesilaus pursued,
and chased them to a place called Leucon, which is in Libya, where
the Libyans resolved to risk a battle. Accordingly they engaged the
Cyrenaeans, and defeated them so entirely that as many as seven thousand
of their heavy-armed were slain in the fight. Arcesilaus, after this
blow, fell sick, and, whilst he was under the influence of a draught
which he had taken, was strangled by Learchus, one of his brothers.
This Learchus was afterwards entrapped by Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaus,
and put to death.
Battus, Arcesilaus' son, succeeded to the kingdom, a lame man, who
limped in his walk. Their late calamities now induced the Cyrenaeans
to send to Delphi and inquire of the god what form of government they
had best set up to secure themselves prosperity. The Pythoness answered
by recommending them to fetch an arbitrator from Mantinea in Arcadia.
Accordingly they sent; and the Mantineans gave them a man named Demonax,
a person of high repute among the citizens; who, on his arrival at
Cyrene, having first made himself acquainted with all the circumstances,
proceeded to enrol the people in three tribes. One he made to consist
of the Theraeans and their vassals; another of the Peloponnesians
and Cretans; and a third of the various islanders. Besides this, he
deprived the king Battus of his former privileges, only reserving
for him certain sacred lands and offices; while, with respect to the
powers which had hitherto been exercised by the king, he gave them
all into the hands of the people.
Thus matters rested during the lifetime of this Battus, but when his
son Arcesilaus came to the throne, great disturbance arose about the
privileges. For Arcesilaus, son of Battus the lame and Pheretima,
refused to submit to the arrangements of Demonax the Mantinean, and
claimed all the powers of his forefathers. In the contention which
followed Arcesilaus was worsted, whereupon he fled to Samos, while
his mother took refuge at Salamis in the island of Cyprus. Salamis
was at that time ruled by Evelthon, the same who offered at Delphi
the censer which is in the treasury of the Corinthians, a work deserving
of admiration. Of him Pheretima made request that he would give her
an army whereby she and her son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon,
preferring to give her anything rather than an army, made her various
presents. Pheretima accepted them all, saying, as she took them: "Good
is this too, O king! but better were it to give me the army which
I crave at thy hands." Finding that she repeated these words each
time that he presented her with a gift, Evelthon at last sent her
a golden spindle and distaff, with the wool ready for spinning. Again
she uttered the same speech as before, whereupon Evelthon rejoined-"These
are the gifts I present to women, not armies."
At Samos, meanwhile, Arcesilaus was collecting troops by the promise
of granting them lands. Having in this way drawn together a vast host,
he sent to Delphi to consult the oracle about his restoration. The
answer of the Pythoness was this: "Loxias grants thy race to rule
over Cyrene, till four kings Battus, four Arcesilaus by name, have
passed away. Beyond this term of eight generations of men, he warns
you not to seek to extend your reign. Thou, for thy part, be gentle,
when thou art restored. If thou findest the oven full of jars, bake
not the jars; but be sure to speed them on their way. If, however,
thou heatest the oven, then avoid the island else thou wilt die thyself,
and with thee the most beautiful bull."
So spake the Pythoness. Arcesilaus upon this returned to Cyrene, taking
with him the troops which he had raised in Samos. There he obtained
possession of the supreme power; whereupon, forgetful of the oracle,
he took proceedings against those who had driven him into banishment.
Some of them fled from him and quitted the country for good; others
fell into his hands and were sent to suffer death in Cyprus. These
last happening on their passage to put in through stress of weather
at Cnidus, the Cnidians rescued them, and sent them off to Thera.
Another body found a refuge in the great tower of Aglomachus, a private
edifice, and were there destroyed by Arcesilaus, who heaped wood around
the place, and burnt them to death. Aware, after the deed was done,
that this was what the Pythoness meant when she warned him, if he
found the jars in the oven, not to bake them, he withdrew himself
of his own accord from the city of Cyrene, believing that to be the
island of the oracle, and fearing to die as had been prophesied. Being
married to a relation of his own, a daughter of Alazir, at that time
king of the Barcaeans, he took up his abode with him. At Barca, however,
certain of the citizens, together with a number of Cyrenaean exiles,
recognising him as he walked in the forum, killed him; they slew also
at the same time Alazir, his father-in-law. So Arcesilaus, wittingly
or unwittingly, disobeyed the oracle, and thereby fulfilled his destiny.
Pheretima, the mother of Arcesilaus, during the time that her son,
after working his own ruin, dwelt at Barca, continued to enjoy all
his privileges at Cyrene, managing the government, and taking her
seat at the council-board. No sooner, however, did she hear of the
death of her son at Barca, than leaving Cyrene, she fled in haste
to Egypt. Arcesilaus had claims for service done to Cambyses, son
of Cyrus; since it was by him that Cyrene was put under the Persian
yoke, and a rate of tribute agreed upon. Pheretima therefore went
straight to Egypt, and presenting herself as a suppliant before Aryandes,
entreated him to avenge her wrongs. Her son, she said, had met his
death on account of his being so well affected towards the Medes.
Now Aryandes had been made governor of Egypt by Cambyses. He it was
who in after times was punished with death by Darius for seeking to
rival him. Aware, by report and also by his own eyesight, that Darius
wished to leave a memorial of himself, such as no king had ever left
before, Aryandes resolved to follow his example, and did so, till
he got his reward. Darius had refined gold to the last perfection
of purity in order to have coins struck of it: Aryandes, in his Egyptian
government, did the very same with silver, so that to this day there
is no such pure silver anywhere as the Aryandic. Darius, when this
came to his ears, brought another charge, a charge of rebellion, against
Aryandes, and put him to death.
At the time of which we are speaking Aryandes, moved with compassion
for Pheretima, granted her all the forces which there were in Egypt,
both land and sea. The command of the army he gave to Amasis, a Maraphian;
while Badres, one of the tribe of the Pasargadae, was appointed to
lead the fleet. Before the expedition, however, left Egypt, he sent
a herald to Barca to inquire who it was that had slain king Arcesilaus.
The Barcaeans replied "that they, one and all, acknowledged the deed-
Arcesilaus had done them many and great injuries." After receiving
this reply, Aryandes gave the troops orders to march with Pheretima.
Such was the cause which served as a pretext for this expedition:
its real object was, I believe, the subjugation of Libya. For Libya
is inhabited by many and various races, and of these but very few
were subjects of the Persian king, while by far the larger number
held Darius in no manner of respect.
The Libyans dwell in the order which I will now describe. Beginning
on the side of Egypt, the first Libyans are the Adyrmachidae These
people have, in most points, the same customs as the Egyptians, but
use the costume of the Libyans. Their women wear on each leg a ring
made of bronze; they let their hair grow long, and when they catch
any vermin on their persons, bite it and throw it away. In this they
differ from all the other Libyans. They are also the only tribe with
whom the custom obtains of bringing all women about to become brides
before the king, that he may choose such as are agreeable to him.
The Adyrmachidae extend from the borders of Egypt to the harbour called
Port Plynus.
Next to the Adyrmachidae are the Gilligammae, who inhabit the country
westward as far as the island of Aphrodisias. Off this tract is the
island of Platea, which the Cyrenaeans colonised. Here too, upon the
mainland, are Port Menelaus, and Aziris, where the Cyrenaeans once
lived. The Silphium begins to grow in this region, extending from
the island of Platea on the one side to the mouth of the Syrtis on
the other. The customs of the Gilligammae are like those of the rest
of their countrymen.
The Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae upon the west. They inhabit the
regions above Cyrene, but do not reach to the coast, which belongs
to the Cyrenaeans. Four-horse chariots are in more common use among
them than among any other Libyans. In most of their customs they ape
the manners of the Cyrenaeans.
Westward of the Asbystae dwell the Auschisae, who possess the country
above Barca, reaching, however, to the sea at the place called Euesperides.
In the middle of their territory is the little tribe of the Cabalians,
which touches the coast near Tauchira, a city of the Barcaeans. Their
customs are like those of the Libyans above Cyrene.
The Nasamonians, a numerous people, are the western neighbours of
the Auschisae. In summer they leave their flocks and herds upon the
sea-shore, and go up the country to a place called Augila, where they
gather the dates from the palms, which in those parts grow thickly,
and are of great size, all of them being of the fruit-bearing kind.
They also chase the locusts, and, when caught, dry them in the sun,
after which they grind them to powder, and, sprinkling this upon their
milk, so drink it. Each man among them has several wives, in their
intercourse with whom they resemble the Massagetae. The following
are their customs in the swearing of oaths and the practice of augury.
The man, as he swears, lays his hand upon the tomb of some one considered
to have been pre-eminently just and good, and so doing swears by his
name. For divination they betake themselves to the sepulchres of their
own ancestors, and, after praying, lie down to sleep upon their graves;
by the dreams which then come to them they guide their conduct. When
they pledge their faith to one another, each gives the other to drink
out of his hand; if there be no liquid to be had, they take up dust
from the ground, and put their tongues to it.
On the country of the Nasamonians borders that of the Psylli, who
were swept away under the following circumstances. The south-wind
had blown for a long time and dried up all the tanks in which their
water was stored. Now the whole region within the Syrtis is utterly
devoid of springs. Accordingly the Psylli took counsel among themselves,
and by common consent made war upon the southwind- so at least the
Libyans say, I do but repeat their words- they went forth and reached
the desert; but there the south-wind rose and buried them under heaps
of sand: whereupon, the Psylli being destroyed, their lands passed
to the Nasamonians.
Above the Nasamonians, towards the south, in the district where the
wild beasts abound, dwell the Garamantians, who avoid all society
or intercourse with their fellow-men, have no weapon of war, and do
not know how to defend themselves.
These border the Nasamonians on the south: westward along the sea-shore
their neighbours are the Macea, who, by letting the locks about the
crown of their head grow long, while they clip them close everywhere
else, make their hair resemble a crest. In war these people use the
skins of ostriches for shields. The river Cinyps rises among them
from the height called "the Hill of the Graces," and runs from thence
through their country to the sea. The Hill of the Graces is thickly
covered with wood, and is thus very unlike the rest of Libya, which
is bare. It is distant two hundred furlongs from the sea.
Adjoining the Macae are the Gindanes, whose women wear on their legs
anklets of leather. Each lover that a woman has gives her one; and
she who can show the most is the best esteemed, as she appears to
have been loved by the greatest number of men.
A promontory jutting out into the sea from the country of the Gindanes
is inhabited by the Lotophagi, who live entirely on the fruit of the
lotus-tree. The lotus fruit is about the size of the lentisk berry,
and in sweetness resembles the date. The Lotophagi even succeed in
obtaining from it a sort of wine.
The sea-coast beyond the Lotophagi is occupied by the Machlyans, who
use the lotus to some extent, though not so much as the people of
whom we last spoke. The Machlyans reach as far as the great river
called the Triton, which empties itself into the great lake Tritonis.
Here, in this lake, is an island called Phla, which it is said the
Lacedaemonians were to have colonised, according to an oracle.
The following is the story as it is commonly told. When Jason had
finished building the Argo at the foot of Mount Pelion, he took on
board the usual hecatomb, and moreover a brazen tripod. Thus equipped,
he set sail, intending to coast round the Peloponnese, and so to reach
Delphi. The voyage was prosperous as far as Malea; but at that point
a gale of wind from the north came on suddenly, and carried him out
of his course to the coast of Libya; where, before he discovered the
land, he got among the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As he was turning
it in his mind how he should find his way out, Triton (they say) appeared
to him, and offered to show him the channel, and secure him a safe
retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason complying, was shown
by Triton the passage through the shallows; after which the god took
the tripod, and, carrying it to his own temple, seated himself upon
it, and, filled with prophetic fury, delivered to Jason and his companions
a long prediction. "When a descendant," he said, "of one of the Argo's
crew should seize and carry off the brazen tripod, then by inevitable
fate would a hundred Grecian cities be built around Lake Tritonis."
The Libyans of that region, when they heard the words of this prophecy,
took away the tripod and hid it.
The next tribe beyond the Machlyans is the tribe of the Auseans. Both
these nations inhabit the borders of Lake Tritonis, being separated
from one another by the river Triton. Both also wear their hair long,
but the Machlyans let it grow at the back of the head, while the Auseans
have it long in front. The Ausean maidens keep year by year a feast
in honour of Minerva, whereat their custom is to draw up in two bodies,
and fight with stones and clubs. They say that these are rites which
have come down to them from their fathers, and that they honour with
them their native goddess, who is the same as the Minerva (Athene)
of the Grecians. If any of the maidens die of the wounds they receive,
the Auseans declare that such are false maidens. Before the fight
is suffered to begin, they have another ceremony. One of the virgins,
the loveliest of the number, is selected from the rest; a Corinthian
helmet and a complete suit of Greek armour are publicly put upon her;
and, thus adorned, she is made to mount into a chariot, and led around
the whole lake in a procession. What arms they used for the adornment
of their damsels before the Greeks came to live in their country,
I cannot say. I imagine they dressed them in Egyptian armour, for
I maintain that both the shield and the helmet came into Greece from
Egypt. The Auseans declare that Minerva is the daughter of Neptune
and the Lake Tritonis- they say she quarrelled with her father, and
applied to Jupiter, who consented to let her be his child; and so
she became his adopted daughter. These people do not marry or live
in families, but dwell together like the gregarious beasts. When their
children are full-grown, they are brought before the assembly of the
men, which is held every third month, and assigned to those whom they
most resemble.
Such are the tribes of wandering Libyans dwelling upon the sea-coast.
Above them inland is the wild-beast tract: and beyond that, a ridge
of sand, reaching from Egyptian Thebes to the Pillars of Hercules.
Throughout this ridge, at the distance of about ten days' journey
from one another, heaps of salt in large lumps lie upon hills. At
the top of every hill there gushes forth from the middle of the salt
a stream of water, which is both cold and sweet. Around dwell men
who are the last inhabitants of Libya on the side of the desert, living,
as they do, more inland than the wild-beast district. Of these nations
the first is that of the Ammonians, who dwell at a distance of ten
days' from Thebes, and have a temple derived from that of the Theban
Jupiter. For at Thebes likewise, as I mentioned above, the image of
Jupiter has a face like that of a ram. The Ammonians have another
spring besides that which rises from the salt. The water of this stream
is lukewarm at early dawn; at the time when the market fills it is
much cooler; by noon it has grown quite cold; at this time, therefore,
they water their gardens. As the afternoon advances the coldness goes
off, till, about sunset, the water is once more lukewarm; still the
heat increases, and at midnight it boils furiously. After this time
it again begins to cool, and grows less and less hot till morning
comes. This spring is called "the Fountain of the Sun."
Next to the Ammonians, at the distance of ten days' journey along
the ridge of sand, there is a second salt-hill like the Ammonian,
and a second spring. The country round is inhabited, and the place
bears the name of Augila. Hither it is that the Nasamonians come to
gather in the dates.
Ten days' journey from Augila there is again a salt-hill and a spring;
palms of the fruitful kind grow here abundantly, as they do also at
the other salt-hills. This region is inhabited by a nation called
the Garamantians, a very powerful people, who cover the salt with
mould, and then sow their crops. From thence is the shortest road
to the Lutophagi, a journey of thirty days. In the Garamantian country
are found the oxen which, as they graze, walk backwards. This they
do because their horns curve outwards in front of their heads, so
that it is not possible for them when grazing to move forwards, since
in that case their horns would become fixed in the ground. Only herein
do they differ from other oxen, and further in the thickness and hardness
of their hides. The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in which
they chase the Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the nations whereof
any account has reached our ears are by far the swiftest of foot.
The Troglodytes feed on serpents, lizards, and other similar reptiles.
Their language is unlike that of any other people; it sounds like
the screeching of bats.
At the distance of ten days' journey from the Garamantians there is
again another salt-hill and spring of water; around which dwell a
people, called the Atarantians, who alone of all known nations are
destitute of names. The title of Atarantians is borne by the whole
race in common; but the men have no particular names of their own.
The Atarantians, when the sun rises high in the heaven, curse him,
and load him with reproaches, because (they say) he burns and wastes
both their country and themselves. Once more at the distance of ten
days' there is a salt-hill, a spring, and an inhabited tract. Near
the salt is a mountain called Atlas, very taper and round; so lofty,
moreover, that the top (it is said) cannot be seen, the clouds never
quitting it either summer or winter. The natives call this mountain
"the Pillar of Heaven"; and they themselves take their name from it,
being called Atlantes. They are reported not to eat any living thing,
and never to have any dreams.
As far as the Atlantes the names of the nations inhabiting the sandy
ridge are known to me; but beyond them my knowledge fails. The ridge
itself extends as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and even further
than these; and throughout the whole distance, at the end of every
ten days' there is a salt-mine, with people dwelling round it who
all of them build their houses with blocks of the salt. No rain falls
in these parts of Libya; if it were otherwise, the walls of these
houses could not stand. The salt quarried is of two colours, white
and purple. Beyond the ridge, southwards, in the direction of the
interior, the country is a desert, with no springs, no beasts, no
rain, no wood, and altogether destitute of moisture.
Thus from Egypt as far as Lake Tritonis Libya is inhabited by wandering
tribes, whose drink is milk and their food the flesh of animals. Cow's
flesh, however, none of these tribes ever taste, but abstain from
it for the same reason as the Egyptians, neither do they any of them
breed swine. Even at Cyrene, the women think it wrong to eat the flesh
of the cow, honouring in this Isis, the Egyptian goddess, whom they
worship both with fasts and festivals. The Barcaean women abstain,
not from cow's flesh only, but also from the flesh of swine.
West of Lake Tritonis the Libyans are no longer wanderers, nor do
they practise the same customs as the wandering people, or treat their
children in the same way. For the wandering Libyans, many of them
at any rate, if not all- concerning which I cannot speak with certainty-
when their children come to the age of four years, burn the veins
at the top of their heads with a flock from the fleece of a sheep:
others burn the veins about the temples. This they do to prevent them
from being plagued in their after lives by a flow of rheum from the
head; and such they declare is the reason why they are so much more
healthy than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the healthiest men
that I know; but whether this is what makes them so, or not, I cannot
positively say- the healthiest certainly they are. If when the children
are being burnt convulsions come on, there is a remedy of which they
have made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's water upon the child,
who thus treated, is sure to recover. In all this I only repeat what
is said by the Libyans.
The rites which the wandering Libyans use in sacrificing are the following.
They begin with the ear of the victim, which they cut off and throw
over their house: this done, they kill the animal by twisting the
neck. They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but not to any other god.
This worship is common to all the Libyans. The inhabitants of the
parts about Lake Tritonis worship in addition Triton, Neptune, and
Minerva, the last especially.
The dress wherewith Minerva's statues are adorned, and her Aegis,
were derived by the Greeks from the women of Libya. For, except that
the garments of the Libyan women are of leather, and their fringes
made of leathern thongs instead of serpents, in all else the dress
of both is exactly alike. The name too itself shows that the mode
of dressing the Pallas-statues came from Libya. For the Libyan women
wear over their dress stript of the hair, fringed at their edges,
and coloured with vermilion; and from these goat-skins the Greeks
get their word Aegis (goat-harness). I think for my part that the
loud cries uttered in our sacred rites came also from thence; for
the Libyan women are greatly given to such cries and utter them very
sweetly. Likewise the Greeks learnt from the Libyans to yoke four
horses to a chariot.
All the wandering tribes bury their dead according to the fashion
of the Greeks, except the Nasamonians. They bury them sitting, and
are right careful when the sick man is at the point of giving up the
ghost, to make him sit and not let him die lying down. The dwellings
of these people are made of the stems of the asphodel, and of rushes
wattled together. They can be carried from place to place. Such are
the customs of the afore-mentioned tribes.
Westward of the river Triton and adjoining upon the Auseans, are other
Libyans who till the ground, and live in houses: these people are
named the Maxyans. They let the hair grow long on the right side of
their heads, and shave it close on the left; they besmear their bodies
with red paint; and they say that they are descended from the men
of Troy. Their country and the remainder of Libya towards the west
is far fuller of wild beasts and of wood than the country of the wandering
people. For the eastern side of Libya, where the wanderers dwell,
is low and sandy, as far as the river Triton; but westward of that
the land of the husbandmen is very hilly, and abounds with forests
and wild beasts. For this is the tract in which the huge serpents
are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, the aspicks, and
the horned asses. Here too are the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures
without heads, whom the Libyans declare to have their eyes in their
breasts; and also the wild men, and wild women, and many other far
less fabulous beasts.
Among the wanderers are none of these, but quite other animals; as
antelopes, gazelles, buffaloes, and asses, not of the horned sort,
but of a kind which does not need to drink; also oryxes, whose horns
are used for the curved sides of citherns, and whose size is about
that of the ox; foxes, hyaenas porcupines, wild rams, dictyes, jackals,
panthers, boryes, land-crocodiles about three cubits in length, very
like lizards, ostriches, and little snakes, each with a single horn.
All these animals are found here, and likewise those belonging to
other countries, except the stag and the wild boar; but neither stag
nor wild-boar are found in any part of Libya. There are, however,
three sorts of mice in these parts; the first are called two-footed;
the next, zegeries, which is a Libyan word meaning "hills"; and the
third, urchins. Weasels also are found in the Silphium region, much
like the Tartessian. So many, therefore, are the animals belonging
to the land of the wandering Libyans, in so far at least as my researches
have been able to reach.
Next to the Maxyan Libyans are the Zavecians, whose wives drive their
chariots to battle.
On them border the Gyzantians; in whose country a vast deal of honey
is made by bees; very much more, however, by the skill of men. The
people all paint themselves red, and eat monkeys, whereof there is
inexhaustible store in the hills.
Off their coast, as the Carthaginians report, lies an island, by name
Cyraunis, the length of which is two hundred furlongs, its breadth
not great, and which is soon reached from the mainland. Vines and
olive trees cover the whole of it, and there is in the island a lake,
from which the young maidens of the country draw up gold-dust, by
dipping into the mud birds' feathers smeared with pitch. If this be
true, I know not; I but write what is said. It may be even so, however;
since I myself have seen pitch drawn up out of the water from a lake
in Zacynthus. At the place I speak of there are a number of lakes;
but one is larger than the rest, being seventy feet every way, and
two fathoms in depth. Here they let down a pole into the water, with
a bunch of myrtle tied to one end, and when they raise it again, there
is pitch sticking to the myrtle, which in smell is like to bitumen,
but in all else is better than the pitch of Pieria. This they pour
into a trench dug by the lake's side; and when a good deal has thus
been got together, they draw it off and put it up in jars. Whatever
falls into the lake passes underground, and comes up in the sea, which
is no less than four furlongs distant. So then what is said of the
island off the Libyan coast is not without likelihood.
The Carthaginians also relate the following:- There is a country in
Libya, and a nation, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which they are
wont to visit, where they no sooner arrive but forthwith they unlade
their wares, and, having disposed them after an orderly fashion along
the beach, leave them, and, returning aboard their ships, raise a
great smoke. The natives, when they see the smoke, come down to the
shore, and, laying out to view so much gold as they think the worth
of the wares, withdraw to a distance. The Carthaginians upon this
come ashore and look. If they think the gold enough, they take it
and go their way; but if it does not seem to them sufficient, they
go aboard ship once more, and wait patiently. Then the others approach
and add to their gold, till the Carthaginians are content. Neither
party deals unfairly by the other: for they themselves never touch
the gold till it comes up to the worth of their goods, nor do the
natives ever carry off the goods till the gold is taken away.
These be the Libyan tribes whereof I am able to give the names; and
most of these cared little then, and indeed care little now, for the
king of the Medes. One thing more also I can add concerning this region,
namely, that, so far as our knowledge reaches, four nations, and no
more, inhabit it; and two of these nations are indigenous, while two
are not. The two indigenous are the Libyans and Ethiopians, who dwell
respectively in the north and the south of Libya. The Phoenicians
and the Greek are in-comers.
It seems to me that Libya is not to compare for goodness of soil with
either Asia or Europe, except the Cinyps region, which is named after
the river that waters it. This piece of land is equal to any country
in the world for cereal crops, and is in nothing like the rest of
Libya. For the soil here is black, and springs of water abound; so
that there is nothing to fear from drought; nor do heavy rains (and
it rains in that part of Libya) do any harm when they soak the ground.
The returns of the harvest come up to the measure which prevails in
Babylonia. The soil is likewise good in the country of the Euesperites;
for there the land brings forth in the best years a hundred-fold.
But the Cinyps region yields three hundred-fold.
The country of the Cyrenaeans, which is the highest tract within the
part of Libya inhabited by the wandering tribes, has three seasons
that deserve remark. First the crops along the sea-coast begin to
ripen, and are ready for the harvest and the vintage; after they have
been gathered in, the crops of the middle tract above the coast region
(the hill-country, as they call it) need harvesting; while about the
time when this middle crop is housed, the fruits ripen and are fit
for cutting in the highest tract of all. So that the produce of the
first tract has been all eaten and drunk by the time that the last
harvest comes in. And the harvest-time of the Cyrenaeans continues
thus for eight full months. So much concerning these matters.
When the Persians sent from Egypt by Aryandes to help Pheretima reached
Barca, they laid siege to the town, calling on those within to give
up the men who had been guilty of the murder of Arcesilaus. The townspeople,
however, as they had one and all taken part in the deed, refused to
entertain the proposition. So the Persians beleaguered Barca for nine
months, in the course of which they dug several mines from their own
lines to the walls, and likewise made a number of vigorous assaults.
But their mines were discovered by a man who was a worker in brass,
who went with a brazen shield all round the fortress, and laid it
on the ground inside the city. In other Places the shield, when he
laid it down, was quite dumb; but where the ground was undermined,
there the brass of the shield rang. Here, therefore, the Barcaeans
countermined, and slew the Persian diggers. Such was the way in which
the mines were discovered; as for the assaults, the Barcaeans beat
them back.
When much time had been consumed, and great numbers had fallen on
both sides, nor had the Persians lost fewer than their adversaries,
Amasis, the leader of the land-army, perceiving that, although the
Barcaeans would never be conquered by force, they might be overcome
by fraud, contrived as follows One night he dug a wide trench, and
laid light planks of wood across the opening, after which he brought
mould and placed it upon the planks, taking care to make the place
level with the surrounding ground. At dawn of day he summoned the
Barcaeans to a parley: and they gladly hearkening, the terms were
at length agreed upon. Oaths were interchanged upon the ground over
the hidden trench, and the agreement ran thus- "So long as the ground
beneath our feet stands firm, the oath shall abide unchanged; the
people of Barca agree to pay a fair sum to the king, and the Persians
promise to cause no further trouble to the people of Barca." After
the oath, the Barcaeans, relying upon its terms, threw open all their
gates, went out themselves beyond the walls, and allowed as many of
the enemy as chose to enter. Then the Persians broke down their secret
bridge, and rushed at speed into the town- their reason for breaking
the bridge being that so they might observe what they had sworn; for
they had promised the Barcaeans that the oath should continue "so
long as the ground whereon they stood was firm." When, therefore,
the bridge was once broken down, the oath ceased to hold.
Such of the Barcaeans as were most guilty the Persians gave up to
Pheretima, who nailed them to crosses all round the walls of the city.
She also cut off the breasts of their wives, and fastened them likewise
about the walls. The remainder of the people she gave as booty to
the Persians, except only the Battiadae and those who had taken no
part in the murder, to whom she handed over the possession of the
town.
The Persians now set out on their return home, carrying with them
the rest of the Barcaeans, whom they had made their slaves. On their
way they came to Cyrene; and the Cyrenaeans, out of regard for an
oracle, let them pass through the town. During the passage, Bares,
the commander of the fleet, advised to seize the place; but Amasis,
the leader of the land-force, would not consent; "because," he said,
"they had only been charged to attack the one Greek city of Barca."
When, however, they had passed through the town, and were encamped
upon the hill of Lycaean Jove, it repented them that they had not
seized Cyrene, and they endeavoured to enter it a second time. The
Cyrenaeans, however, would not suffer this; whereupon, though no one
appeared to offer them battle, yet a panic came upon the Persians,
and they ran a distance of full sixty furlongs before they pitched
their camp. Here as they lay, a messenger came to them from Aryandes,
ordering them home. Then the Persians besought the men of Cyrene to
give them provisions for the way, and, these consenting, they set
off on their return to Egypt. But the Libyans now beset them, and,
for the sake of their clothes and harness, slew all who dropped behind
and straggled, during the whole march homewards.
The furthest point of Libya reached by this Persian host was the city
of Euesperides. The Barcaeans carried into slavery were sent from
Egypt to the king; and Darius assigned them a village in Bactria for
their dwelling-place. To this village they gave the name of Barca,
and it was to my time an inhabited place in Bactria.
Nor did Pheretima herself end her days happily. For on her return
to Egypt from Libya, directly after taking vengeance on the people
of Barca, she was overtaken by a most horrid death. Her body swarmed
with worms, which ate her flesh while she was still alive. Thus do
men, by over-harsh punishments, draw down upon themselves the anger
of the gods. Such then, and so fierce, was the vengeance which Pheretima,
daughter of Battus, took upon the Barcaeans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK V
Terpsichore
The Persians left behind by King Darius in Europe, who had Megabazus
for their general, reduced, before any other Hellespontine state,
the people of Perinthus, who had no mind to become subjects of the
king. Now the Perinthians had ere this been roughly handled by another
nation, the Paeonians. For the Paeonians from about the Strymon were
once bidden by an oracle to make war upon the Perinthians, and if
these latter, when the camps faced one another, challenged them by
name to fight, then to venture on a battle, but if otherwise, not
to make the hazard. The Paeonians followed the advice. Now the men
of Perinthus drew out to meet them in the skirts of their city; and
a threefold single combat was fought on challenge given. Man to man,
and horse to horse, and dog to dog, was the strife waged; and the
Perinthians, winners of two combats out of the three, in their joy
had raised the paean; when the Paeonians struck by the thought that
this was what the oracle had meant, passed the word one to another,
saying, "Now of a surety has the oracle been fulfilled for us; now
our work begins." Then the Paeonians set upon the Perinthians in the
midst of their paean, and defeated them utterly, leaving but few of
them alive.
Such was the affair of the Paeonians, which happened a long time previously.
At this time the Perinthians, after a brave struggle for freedom,
were overcome by numbers, and yielded to Megabazus and his Persians.
After Perinthus had been brought under, Megabazus led his host through
Thrace, subduing to the dominion of the king all the towns and all
the nations of those parts. For the king's command to him was that
he should conquer Thrace.
The Thracians are the most powerful people in the world, except, of
course, the Indians; and if they had one head, or were agreed among
themselves, it is my belief that their match could not be found anywhere,
and that they would very far surpass all other nations. But such union
is impossible for them, and there are no means of ever bringing it
about. Herein therefore consists their weakness. The Thracians bear
many names in the different regions of their country, but all of them
have like usages in every respect, excepting only the Getae, the Trausi,
and those who dwell above the people of Creston.
Now the manners and customs of the Getae, who believe in their immortality,
I have already spoken of. The Trausi in all else resemble the other
Thracians, but have customs at births and deaths which I will now
describe. When a child is born all its kindred sit round about it
in a circle and weep for the woes it will have to undergo now that
it is come into the world, making mention of every ill that falls
to the lot of humankind; when, on the other hand, a man has died,
they bury him with laughter and rejoicings, and say that now he is
free from a host of sufferings, and enjoys the completest happiness.
The Thracians who live above the Crestonaeans observe the following
customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no sooner does
a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the wives upon the question
which of them all the husband loved most tenderly; the friends of
each eagerly plead on her behalf, and she to whom the honour is adjudged,
after receiving the praises both of men and women, is slain over the
grave by the hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband.
The others are sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a disgrace.
The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which
follow. They sell their children to traders. On their maidens they
keep no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct
of their wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased
of their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing among them marks
noble birth, and the want of it low birth. To be idle is accounted
the most honourable thing, and to be a tiller of the ground the most
dishonourable. To live by war and plunder is of all things the most
glorious. These are the most remarkable of their customs.
The gods which they worship are but three, Mars, Bacchus, and Dian.
Their kings, however, unlike the rest of the citizens, worship Mercury
more than any other god, always swearing by his name, and declaring
that they are themselves sprung from him.
Their wealthy ones are buried in the following fashion. The body is
laid out for three days; and during this time they kill victims of
all kinds, and feast upon them, after first bewailing the departed.
Then they either burn the body or else bury it in the ground. Lastly,
they raise a mound over the grave, and hold games of all sorts, wherein
the single combat is awarded the highest prize. Such is the mode of
burial among the Thracians.
As regards the region lying north of this country no one can say with
any certainty what men inhabit it. It appears that you no sooner cross
the Ister than you enter on an interminable wilderness. The only people
of whom I can hear as dwelling beyond the Ister are the race named
Sigynnae, who wear, they say, a dress like the Medes, and have horses
which are covered entirely with a coat of shaggy hair, five fingers
in length. They are a small breed, flat-nosed, and not strong enough
to bear men on their backs; but when yoked to chariots, they are among
the swiftest known, which is the reason why the people of that country
use chariots. Their borders reach down almost to the Eneti upon the
Adriatic Sea, and they call themselves colonists of the Medes; but
how they can be colonists of the Medes I for my part cannot imagine.
Still nothing is impossible in the long lapse of ages. Sigynnae is
the name which the Ligurians who dwell above Massilia give to traders,
while among the Cyprians the word means spears.
According to the account which the Thracians give, the country beyond
the Ister is possessed by bees, on account of which it is impossible
to penetrate farther. But in this they seem to me to say what has
no likelihood; for it is certain that those creatures are very impatient
of cold. I rather believe that it is on account of the cold that the
regions which lie under the Bear are without inhabitants. Such then
are the accounts given of this country, the sea-coast whereof Megabazus
was now employed in subjecting to the Persians.
King Darius had no sooner crossed the Hellespont and reached Sardis,
than he bethought himself of the good deed of Histiaeus the Milesian,
and the good counsel of the Mytilenean Coes. He therefore sent for
both of them to Sardis, and bade them each crave a boon at his hands.
Now Histiaeus, as he was already king of Miletus, did not make request
for any government besides, but asked Darius to give him Myrcinus
of the Edonians, where he wished to build him a city. Such was the
choice that Histiaeus made. Coes, on the other hand, as he was a mere
burgher, and not a king, requested the sovereignty of Mytilene. Both
alike obtained their requests, and straight-way betook themselves
to the places which they had chosen.
It chanced in the meantime that King Darius saw a sight which determined
him to bid Megabazus remove the Paeonians from their seats in Europe
and transport them to Asia. There were two Paeonians, Pigres and Mantyes,
whose ambition it was to obtain the sovereignty over their countrymen.
As soon therefore as ever Darius crossed into Asia, these men came
to Sardis, and brought with them their sister, who was a tall and
beautiful woman. Having so done, they waited till a day came when
the king sat in state in the suburb of the Lydians; and then dressing
their sister in the richest gear they could, sent her to draw water
for them. She bore a pitcher upon her head, and with one arm led a
horse, while all the way as she went she span flax. Now as she passed
by where the king was, Darius took notice of her; for it was neither
like the Persians nor the Lydians, nor any of the dwellers in Asia,
to do as she did. Darius accordingly noted her, and ordered some of
his guard to follow her steps, and watch to see what she would do
with the horse. So the spearmen went; and the woman, when she came
to the river, first watered the horse, and then filling the pitcher,
came back the same way she had gone, with the pitcher of water upon
her head, and the horse dragging upon her arm, while she still kept
twirling the spindle.
King Darius was full of wonder both at what they who had watched the
woman told him, and at what he had himself seen. So he commanded that
she should be brought before him. And the woman came; and with her
appeared her brothers, who had been watching everything a little way
off. Then Darius asked them of what nation the woman was; and the
young men replied that they were Paeonians, and she was their sister.
Darius rejoined by asking, "Who the Paeonians were, and in what part
of the world they lived? and, further, what business had brought the
young men to Sardis?" Then the brothers told him they had come to
put themselves under his power, and Paeonia was a country upon the
river Strymon, and the Strymon was at no great distance from the Hellespont.
The Paeonians, they said, were colonists of the Teucrians from Troy.
When they had thus answered his questions, Darius asked if all the
women of their country worked so hard? Then the brothers eagerly answered,
Yes; for this was the very object with which the whole thing had been
done.
So Darius wrote letters to Megabazus, the commander whom he had left
behind in Thrace, and ordered him to remove the Paeonians from their
own land, and bring them into his presence, men, women, and children.
And straightway a horseman took the message, and rode at speed to
the Hellespont; and, crossing it, gave the paper to Megabazus. Then
Megabazus, as soon as he had read it, and procured guides from Thrace,
made war upon Paeonia.
Now when the Paeonians heard that the Persians were marching against
them, they gathered themselves together, and marched down to the sea-coast,
since they thought the Persians would endeavour to enter their country
on that side. Here then they stood in readiness to oppose the army
of Megabazus. But the Persians, who knew that they had collected,
and were gone to keep guard at the pass near the sea, got guides,
and taking the inland route before the Paeonians were aware, poured
down upon their cities, from which the men had all marched out; and
finding them empty, easily got possession of them. Then the men, when
they heard that all their towns were taken, scattered this way and
that to their homes, and gave themselves up to the Persians. And so
these tribes of the Paeonians, to wit, the Siropaeonians, the Paeoplians
and all the others as far as Lake Prasias, were torn from their seats
and led away into Asia.
They on the other hand who dwelt about Mount Pangaeum and in the country
of the Doberes, the Agrianians, and the Odomantians, and they likewise
who inhabited Lake Prasias, were not conquered by Megabazus. He sought
indeed to subdue the dwellers upon the lake, but could not effect
his purpose. Their manner of living is the following. Platforms supported
upon tall piles stand in the middle of the lake, which are approached
from the land by a single narrow bridge. At the first the piles which
bear up the platforms were fixed in their places by the whole body
of the citizens, but since that time the custom which has prevailed
about fixing them is this:- they are brought from a hill called Orbelus,
and every man drives in three for each wife that he marries. Now the
men have all many wives apiece; and this is the way in which they
live. Each has his own hut, wherein he dwells, upon one of the platforms,
and each has also a trapdoor giving access to the lake beneath; and
their wont is to tie their baby children by the foot with a string,
to save them from rolling into the water. They feed their horses and
their other beasts upon fish, which abound in the lake to such a degree
that a man has only to open his trap-door and to let down a basket
by a rope into the water, and then to wait a very short time, when
he draws it up quite full of them. The fish are of two kinds, which
they call the paprax and the tilon.
The Paeonians therefore- at least such of them as had been conquered-
were led away into Asia. As for Megabazus, he no sooner brought the
Paeonians under, than he sent into Macedonia an embassy of Persians,
choosing for the purpose the seven men of most note in all the army
after himself. These persons were to go to Amyntas, and require him
to give earth and water to King Darius. Now there is a very short
cut from the Lake Prasias across to Macedonia. Quite close to the
lake is the mine which yielded afterwards a talent of silver a day
to Alexander; and from this mine you have only to cross the mountain
called Dysorum to find yourself in the Macedonian territory.
So the Persians sent upon this errand, when they reached the court,
and were brought into the presence of Amyntas, required him to give
earth and water to King Darius. And Amyntas not only gave them what
they asked, but also invited them to come and feast with him; after
which he made ready the board with great magnificence, and entertained
the Persians in right friendly fashion. Now when the meal was over,
and they were all set to the drinking, the Persians said-
"Dear Macedonian, we Persians have a custom when we make a great feast
to bring with us to the board our wives and concubines, and make them
sit beside us. Now then, as thou hast received us so kindly, and feasted
us so handsomely, and givest moreover earth and water to King Darius,
do also after our custom in this matter."
Then Amyntas answered- "O, Persians! we have no such custom as this;
but with us men and women are kept apart. Nevertheless, since you,
who are our lords, wish it, this also shall be granted to you."
When Amyntas had thus spoken, he bade some go and fetch the women.
And the women came at his call and took their seats in a row over
against the Persians. Then, when the Persians saw that the women were
fair and comely, they spoke again to Amyntas and said, that "what
had been done was not wise; for it had been better for the women not
to have come at all, than to come in this way, and not sit by their
sides, but remain over against them, the torment of their eyes." So
Amyntas was forced to bid the women sit side by side with the Persians.
The women did as he ordered; and then the Persians, who had drunk
more than they ought, began to put their hands on them, and one even
tried to give the woman next him a kiss.
King Amyntas saw, but he kept silence, although sorely grieved, for
he greatly feared the power of the Persians. Alexander, however, Amyntas'
son, who was likewise there and witnessed the whole, being a young
man and unacquainted with suffering, could not any longer restrain
himself. He therefore, full of wrath, spake thus to Amyntas:- "Dear
father, thou art old and shouldst spare thyself. Rise up from table
and go take thy rest; do not stay out the drinking. I will remain
with the guests and give them all that is fitting."
Amyntas, who guessed that Alexander would play some wild prank, made
answer:- "Dear son, thy words sound to me as those of one who is well
nigh on fire, and I perceive thou sendest me away that thou mayest
do some wild deed. I beseech thee make no commotion about these men,
lest thou bring us all to ruin, but bear to look calmly on what they
do. For myself, I will e'en withdraw as thou biddest me."
Amyntas, when he had thus besought his son, went out; and Alexander
said to the Persians, "Look on these ladies as your own, dear strangers,
all or any of them- only tell us your wishes. But now, as the evening
wears, and I see you have all had wine enough, let them, if you please,
retire, and when they have bathed they shall come back again." To
this the Persians agreed, and Alexander, having got the women away,
sent them off to the harem, and made ready in their room an equal
number of beardless youths, whom he dressed in the garments of the
women, and then, arming them with daggers, brought them in to the
Persians, saying as he introduced them, "Methinks, dear Persians,
that your entertainment has fallen short in nothing. We have set before
you all that we had ourselves in store, and all that we could anywhere
find to give you- and now, to crown the whole, we make over to you
our sisters and our mothers, that you may perceive yourselves to be
entirely honoured by us, even as you deserve to be- and also that
you may take back word to the king who sent you here, that there was
one man, a Greek, the satrap of Macedonia, by whom you were both feasted
and lodged handsomely." So speaking, Alexander set by the side of
each Persian one of those whom he had called Macedonian women, but
who were in truth men. And these men, when the Persians began to be
rude, despatched them with their daggers.
So the ambassadors perished by this death, both they and also their
followers. For the Persians had brought a great train with them, carriages,
and attendants, and baggage of every kind- all of which disappeared
at the same time as the men themselves. Not very long afterwards the
Persians made strict search for their lost embassy; but Alexander,
with much wisdom, hushed up the business, bribing those sent on the
errand, partly with money, and partly with the gift of his own sister
Gygaea, whom he gave in marriage to Bubares, a Persian, the chief
leader of the expedition which came in search of the lost men. Thus
the death of these Persians was hushed up, and no more was said of
it.
Now that the men of this family are Greeks, sprung from Perdiccas,
as they themselves affirm, is a thing which I can declare of my own
knowledge, and which I will hereafter make plainly evident. That they
are so has been already adjudged by those who manage the Pan-Hellenic
contest at Olympia. For when Alexander wished to contend in the games,
and had come to Olympia with no other view, the Greeks who were about
to run against him would have excluded him from the contest- saying
that Greeks only were allowed to contend, and not barbarians. But
Alexander proved himself to be an Argive, and was distinctly adjudged
a Greek; after which he entered the lists for the foot-race, and was
drawn to run in the first pair. Thus was this matter settled.
Megabazus, having reached the Hellespont with the Paeonians, crossed
it, and went up to Sardis. He had become aware while in Europe that
Histiaeus the Milesian was raising a wall at Myrcinus- the town upon
the Strymon which he had obtained from King Darius as his guerdon
for keeping the bridge. No sooner therefore did he reach Sardis with
the Paeonians than he said to Darius, "What mad thing is this that
thou hast done, sire, to let a Greek, a wise man and a shrewd, get
hold of a town in Thrace, a place too where there is abundance of
timber fit for shipbuilding, and oars in plenty, and mines of silver,
and about which are many dwellers both Greek and barbarian, ready
enough to take him for their chief, and by day and night to do his
bidding! I pray thee make this man cease his work, if thou wouldest
not be entangled in a war with thine own followers. Stop him, but
with a gentle message, only bidding him to come to thee. Then when
thou once hast him in thy power, be sure thou take good care that
he never get back to Greece again."
With these words Megabazus easily persuaded Darius, who thought he
had shown true foresight in this matter. Darius therefore sent a messenger
to Myrcinus, who said, "These be the words of the king to thee, O
Histiaeus! I have looked to find a man well affectioned towards me
and towards my greatness; and I have found none whom I can trust like
thee. Thy deeds, and not thy words only, have proved thy love for
me. Now then, since I have a mighty enterprise in hand, I pray thee
come to me, that I may show thee what I purpose!"
Histiaeus, when he heard this, put faith in the words of the messenger;
and, as it seemed to him a grand thing to be the king's counsellor,
he straightway went up to Sardis. Then Darius, when he was come, said
to him, "Dear Histiaeus, hear why I have sent for thee. No sooner
did I return from Scythia, and lose thee out of my sight, than I longed,
as I have never longed for aught else, to behold thee once more, and
to interchange speech with thee. Right sure I am there is nothing
in all the world so precious as a friend who is at once wise and true:
both which thou art, as I have had good proof in what thou hast already
done for me. Now then 'tis well thou art come; for look, I have an
offer to make to thee. Let go Miletus and thy newly-founded town in
Thrace, and come with me up to Susa; share all that I have; live with
me, and be my counsellor.
When Darius had thus spoken he made Artaphernes, his brother by the
father's side, governor of Sardis, and taking Histiaeus with him,
went up to Susa. He left as general of all the troops upon the sea-coast
Otanes, son of Sisamnes, whose father King Cambyses slew and flayed,
because that he, being of the number of the royal judges, had taken
money to give an unrighteous sentence. Therefore Cambyses slew and
flayed Sisamnes, and cutting his skin into strips, stretched them
across the seat of the throne whereon he had been wont to sit when
he heard causes. Having so done Cambyses appointed the son of Sisamnes
to be judge in his father's room, and bade him never forget in what
way his seat was cushioned.
Accordingly this Otanes, who had occupied so strange a throne, became
the successor of Megabazus in his command, and took first of all Byzantium
and Chalcidon, then Antandrus in the Troas, and next Lamponium. This
done, he borrowed ships of the Lesbians, and took Lemnos and Imbrus,
which were still inhabited by Pelasgians.
Now the Lemnians stood on their defence, and fought gallantly; but
they were brought low in course of time. Such as outlived the struggle
were placed by the Persians under the government of Lycaretus, the
brother of that Maeandrius who was tyrant of Samos. (This Lycaretus
died afterwards in his government.) The cause which Otanes alleged
for conquering and enslaving all these nations was that some had refused
to join the king's army against Scythia, while others had molested
the host on its return. Such were the exploits which Otanes performed
in his command.
Afterwards, but for no long time, there was a respite from suffering.
Then from Naxos and Miletus troubles gathered anew about Ionia. Now
Naxos at this time surpassed all the other islands in prosperity,
and Miletus had reached the height of her power, and was the glory
of Ionia. But previously for two generations the Milesians had suffered
grievously from civil disorders, which were composed by the Parians,
whom the Milesians chose before all the rest of the Greeks to rearrange
their government.
Now the way in which the Parians healed their differences was the
following. A number of the chief Parians came to Miletus, and when
they saw in how ruined a condition the Milesians were, they said that
they would like first to go over their country. So they went through
all Milesia, and on their way, whenever they saw in the waste and
desolate country any land that was well farmed, they took down the
names of the owners in their tablets; and having thus gone through
the whole region, and obtained after all but few names, they called
the people together on their return to Miletus, and made proclamation
that they gave the government into the hands of those persons whose
lands they had found well farmed; for they thought it likely (they
said) that the same persons who had managed their own affairs well
would likewise conduct aright the business of the state. The other
Milesians, who in time past had been at variance, they placed under
the rule of these men. Thus was the Milesian government set in order
by the Parians.
It was, however, from the two cities above mentioned that troubles
began now to gather again about Ionia; and this is the way in which
they arose. Certain of the rich men had been banished from Naxos by
the commonalty, and, upon their banishment, had fled to Miletus. Aristagoras,
son of Molpagoras, the nephew and likewise the son-in-law of Histiaeus,
son of Lysagoras, who was still kept by Darius at Susa, happened to
be regent of Miletus at the time of their coming. For the kingly power
belonged to Histiaeus; but he was at Susa when the Naxians came. Now
these Naxians had in times past been bond-friends of Histiaeus; and
so on their arrival at Miletus they addressed themselves to Aristagoras
and begged him to lend them such aid as his ability allowed, in hopes
thereby to recover their country. Then Aristagoras, considering with
himself that, if the Naxians should be restored by his help, he would
be lord of Naxos, put forward the friendship with Histiaeus to cloak
his views, and spoke as follows:-
"I cannot engage to furnish you with such a power as were needful
to force you, against their will, upon the Naxians who hold the city;
for I know they can bring into the field eight thousand bucklers,
and have also a vast number of ships of war. But I will do all that
lies in my power to get you some aid, and I think I can manage it
in this way. Artaphernes happens to be my friend. Now he is a son
of Hystaspes, and brother to King Darius. All the sea-coast of Asia
is under him, and he has a numerous army and numerous ships. I think
I can prevail on him to do what we require."
When the Naxians heard this, they empowered Aristagoras to manage
the matter for them as well as he could, and told him to promise gifts
and pay for the soldiers, which (they said) they would readily furnish,
since they had great hope that the Naxians, so soon as they saw them
returned, would render them obedience, and likewise the other islanders.
For at that time not one of the Cyclades was subject to King Darius.
So Aristagoras went to Sardis and told Artaphernes that Naxos was
an island of no great size, but a fair land and fertile, lying near
Ionia, and containing much treasure and a vast number of slaves. "Make
war then upon this land (he said) and reinstate the exiles; for if
thou wilt do this, first of all, I have very rich gifts in store for
thee (besides the cost of the armament, which it is fair that we who
are the authors of the war should pay); and, secondly, thou wilt bring
under the power of the king not only Naxos but the other islands which
depend on it, as Paros, Andros, and all the rest of the Cyclades.
And when thou hast gained these, thou mayest easily go on against
Euboea, which is a large and wealthy island not less in size than
Cyprus, and very easy to bring under. A hundred ships were quite enough
to subdue the whole." The other answered- "Truly thou art the author
of a plan which may much advantage the house of the king, and thy
counsel is good in all points except the number of the ships. Instead
of a hundred, two hundred shall be at thy disposal when the spring
comes. But the king himself must first approve the undertaking."
When Aristagoras heard this he was greatly rejoiced, and went home
in good heart to Miletus. And Artaphernes, after he had sent a messenger
to Susa to lay the plans of Aristagoras before the king, and received
his approval of the undertaking, made ready a fleet of two hundred
triremes and a vast army of Persians and their confederates. The command
of these he gave to a Persian named Megabates, who belonged to the
house of the Achaemenids, being nephew both to himself and to King
Darius. It was to a daughter of this man that Pausanias the Lacedaemonian,
the son of Cleombrotus (if at least there be any truth in the tale),
was allianced many years afterwards, when he conceived the desire
of becoming tyrant of Greece. Artaphernes now, having named Megabates
to the command, sent forward the armament to Aristagoras.
Megabates set sail, and, touching at Miletus, took on board Aristagoras
with the Ionian troops and the Naxians; after which he steered, as
he gave out, for the Hellespont; and when he reached Chios, he brought
the fleet to anchor off Caucasa, being minded to wait there for a
north wind, and then sail straight to Naxos. The Naxians however were
not to perish at this time; and so the following events were brought
about. As Megabates went his rounds to visit the watches on board
the ships, he found a Myndian vessel upon which there was none set.
Full of anger at such carelessness, he bade his guards to seek out
the captain, one Scylax by name, and thrusting him through one of
the holes in the ship's side, to fasten him there in such a way that
his head might show outside the vessel, while his body remained within.
When Scylax was thus fastened, one went and informed Aristagoras that
Megabates had bound his Myndian friend and was entreating him shamefully.
So he came and asked Megabates to let the man off; but the Persian
refused him; whereupon Aristagoras went himself and set Scylax free.
When Megabates heard this he was still more angry than before, and
spoke hotly to Aristagoras. Then the latter said to him-
"What has thou to do with these matters? Wert thou not sent here by
Artaphernes to obey me, and to sail whithersoever I ordered? Why dost
meddle so?
Thus spake Aristagoras. The other, in high dudgeon at such language,
waited till the night, and then despatched a boat to Naxos, to warn
the Naxians of the coming danger.
Now the Naxians up to this time had not had any suspicion that the
armament was directed against them; as soon, therefore, as the message
reached them, forthwith they brought within their walls all that they
had in the open field, and made themselves ready against a siege by
provisioning their town both with food and drink. Thus was Naxos placed
in a posture of defence; and the Persians, when they crossed the sea
from Chios, found the Naxians fully prepared for them. However they
sat down before the place, and besieged it for four whole months.
When at length all the stores which they had brought with them were
exhausted, and Aristagoras had likewise spent upon the siege no small
sum from his private means, and more was still needed to insure success,
the Persians gave up the attempt, and first building certain forts,
wherein they left the banished Naxians, withdrew to the mainland,
having utterly failed in their undertaking.
And now Aristagoras found himself quite unable to make good his promises
to Artaphernes; nay, he was even hard pressed to meet the claims whereto
he was liable for the pay of the troops; and at the same time his
fear was great, lest, owing to the failure of the expedition and his
own quarrel with Megabates, he should be ousted from the government
of Miletus. These manifold alarms had already caused him to contemplate
raising a rebellion, when the man with the marked head came from Susa,
bringing him instructions on the part of Histiaeus to revolt from
the king. For Histiaeus, when he was anxious to give Aristagoras orders
to revolt, could find but one safe way, as the roads were guarded,
of making his wishes known; which was by taking the trustiest of his
slaves, shaving all the hair from off his head, and then pricking
letters upon the skin, and waiting till the hair grew again. Thus
accordingly he did; and as soon as ever the hair was grown, he despatched
the man to Miletus, giving him no other message than this- "When thou
art come to Miletus, bid Aristagoras shave thy head, and look thereon."
Now the marks on the head, as I have already mentioned, were a command
to revolt. All this Histiaeus did because it irked him greatly to
be kept at Susa, and because he had strong hopes that, if troubles
broke out, he would be sent down to the coast to quell them, whereas,
if Miletus made no movement, he did not see a chance of his ever again
returning thither.
Such, then, were the views which led Histiaeus to despatch his messenger;
and it so chanced that all these several motives to revolt were brought
to bear upon Aristagoras at one and the same time.
Accordingly, at this conjuncture Aristagoras held a council of his
trusty friends, and laid the business before them, telling them both
what he had himself purposed, and what message had been sent him by
Histiaeus. At this council all his friends were of the same way of
thinking, and recommended revolt, except only Hecataeus the historian.
He, first of all, advised them by all means to avoid engaging in war
with the king of the Persians, whose might he set forth, and whose
subject nations he enumerated. As however he could not induce them
to listen to this counsel, he next advised that they should do all
that lay in their power to make themselves masters of the sea. "There
was one only way," he said, "so far as he could see, of their succeeding
in this. Miletus was, he knew, a weak state- but if the treasures
in the temple at Branchidae, which Croesus the Lydian gave to it,
were seized, he had strong hopes that the mastery of the sea might
be thereby gained; at least it would give them money to begin the
war, and would save the treasures from falling into the hands of the
enemy." Now these treasures were of very great value, as I showed
in the first part of my History. The assembly, however, rejected the
counsel of Hecataeus, while, nevertheless, they resolved upon a revolt.
One of their number, it was agreed, should sail to Myus, where the
fleet had been lying since its return from Naxos, and endeavour to
seize the captains who had gone there with the vessels.
Iatragoras accordingly was despatched on this errand, and he took
with guile Oliatus the son of Ibanolis the Mylassian, and Histiaeus
the son of Tymnes the Termerean-Coes likewise, the son of Erxander,
to whom Darius gave Mytilene, and Aristagoras the son of Heraclides
the Cymaean, and also many others. Thus Aristagoras revolted openly
from Darius; and now he set to work to scheme against him in every
possible way. First of all, in order to induce the Milesians to join
heartily in the revolt, he gave out that he laid down his own lordship
over Miletus, and in lieu thereof established a commonwealth: after
which, throughout all Ionia he did the like; for from some of the
cities he drove out their tyrants, and to others, whose goodwill he
hoped thereby to gain, he handed theirs over, thus giving up all the
men whom he had seized at the Naxian fleet, each to the city whereto
he belonged.
Now the Mytileneans had no sooner got Coes into their power, than
they led him forth from the city and stoned him; the Cymaeans, on
the other hand, allowed their tyrant to go free; as likewise did most
of the others. And so this form of government ceased throughout all
the cities. Aristagoras the Milesian, after he had in this way put
down the tyrants, and bidden the cities choose themselves captains
in their room, sailed away himself on board a trireme to Lacedaemon;
for he had great need of obtaining the aid of some powerful ally.
At Sparta, Anaxandridas the son of Leo was no longer king: he had
died, and his son Cleomenes had mounted the throne, not however by
right of merit, but of birth. Anaxandridas took to wife his own sister's
daughter, and was tenderly attached to her; but no children came from
the marriage. Hereupon the Ephors called him before them, and said-
"If thou hast no care for thine own self, nevertheless we cannot allow
this, nor suffer the race of Eurysthenes to die out from among us.
Come then, as thy present wife bears thee no children, put her away,
and wed another. So wilt thou do what is well-pleasing to the Spartans."
Anaxandridas however refused to do as they required, and said it was
no good advice the Ephors gave, to bid him put away his wife when
she had done no wrong, and take to himself another. He therefore declined
to obey them.
Then the Ephors and Elders took counsel together, and laid this proposal
before the king:- "Since thou art so fond, as we see thee to be, of
thy present wife, do what we now advise, and gainsay us not, lest
the Spartans make some unwonted decree concerning thee. We ask thee
not now to put away thy wife to whom thou art married- give her still
the same love and honour as ever- but take thee another wife beside,
who may bear thee children."
When he heard this offer, Anaxandridas gave way- and henceforth he
lived with two wives in two separate houses, quite against all Spartan
custom.
In a short time, the wife whom he had last married bore him a son,
who received the name of Cleomenes; and so the heir to the throne
was brought into the world by her. After this, the first wife also,
who in time past had been barren, by some strange chance conceived,
and came to be with child. Then the friends of the second wife, when
they heard a rumour of the truth, made a great stir, and said it was
a false boast, and she meant, they were sure, to bring forward as
her own a supposititious child. So they raised an outcry against her;
and therefore, when her full time was come, the Ephors, who were themselves
incredulous, sat round her bed, and kept a strict watch on the labour.
At this time then she bore Dorieus, and after him, quickly, Leonidas,
and after him, again quickly, Cleombrotus. Some even say that Leonidas
and Cleombrotus were twins. On the other hand, the second wife, the
mother of Cleomenes (who was a daughter of Prinetadas, the son of
Demarmenus), never gave birth to a second child.
Now Cleomenes, it is said, was not right in his mind; indeed he verged
upon madness; while Dorieus surpassed all his co-mates, and looked
confidently to receiving the kingdom on the score of merit. When,
therefore, after the death of Anaxandridas, the Spartans kept to the
law, and made Cleomenes, his eldest son, king in his room, Dorieus,
who had imagined that he should be chosen, and who could not bear
the thought of having such a man as Cleomenes to rule over him, asked
the Spartans to give him a body of men, and left Sparta with them
in order to found a colony. However, he neither took counsel of the
oracle at Delphi as to the place whereto he should go, nor observed
any of the customary usages; but left Sparta in dudgeon, and sailed
away to Libya, under the guidance of certain men who were Theraeans.
These men brought him to Cinyps, where he colonised a spot, which
has not its equal in all Libya, on the banks of a river: but from
this place he was driven in the third year by the Macians, the Libyans,
and the Carthaginians.
Dorieus returned to the Peloponnese; whereupon Antichares the Eleonian
gave him a counsel (which he got from the oracle of Laius), to "found
the city of Heraclea in Sicily; the whole country of Eryx belonged,"
he said, "to the Heracleids, since Hercules himself conquered it."
On receiving this advice, Dorieus went to Delphi to inquire of the
oracle whether he would take the place to which he was about to go.
The Pythoness prophesied that he would; whereupon Dorieus went back
to Libya, took up the men who had sailed with him at the first, and
proceeded upon his way along the shores of Italy.
Just at this time, the Sybarites say, they and their king Telys were
about to make war upon Crotona, and the Crotoniats, greatly alarmed,
besought Dorieus to lend them aid. Dorieus was prevailed upon, bore
part in the war against Sybaris, and had a share in taking the town.
Such is the account which the Sybarites give of what was done by Dorieus
and his companions. The Crotoniats, on the other hand, maintain that
no foreigner lent them aid in their war against the Sybarites, save
and except Callias the Elean, a soothsayer of the race of the Iamidae;
and he only forsook Telys the Sybaritic king, and deserted to their
side, when he found on sacrificing that the victims were not favourable
to an attack on Crotona. Such is the account which each party gives
of these matters.
Both parties likewise adduce testimonies to the truth of what they
say. The Sybarites show a temple and sacred precinct near the dry
stream of the Crastis, which they declare that Dorieus, after taking
their city, dedicated to Minerva Crastias. And further, they bring
forward the death of Dorieus as the surest proof; since he fell, they
say, because he disobeyed the oracle. For had he in nothing varied
from the directions given him, but confined himself to the business
on which he was sent, he would assuredly have conquered the Erycian
territory, and kept possession of it, instead of perishing with all
his followers. The Crotoniats, on the other hand, point to the numerous
allotments within their borders which were assigned to Callias the
Elean by their countrymen, and which to my day remained in the possession
of his family; while Dorieus and his descendants (they remark) possess
nothing. Yet if Dorieus had really helped them in the Sybaritic war,
he would have received very much more than Callias. Such are the testimonies
which are adduced on either side; it is open to every man to adopt
whichever view he deems the best.
Certain Spartans accompanied Dorieus on his voyage as co-founders,
to wit, Thessalus, Paraebates, Celeas, and Euryleon. These men and
all the troops under their command reached Sicily; but there they
fell in a battle wherein they were defeated by the Egestaeans and
Phoenicians, only one, Euryleon, surviving the disaster. He then,
collecting the remnants of the beaten army, made himself master of
Minoa, the Selinusian colony, and helped the Selinusians to throw
off the yoke of their tyrant Peithagoras. Having upset Peithagoras,
he sought to become tyrant in his room, and he even reigned at Selinus
for a brief space- but after a while the Selinusians rose up in revolt
against him, and though he fled to the altar of Jupiter Agoraeus,
they notwithstanding put him to death.
Another man who accompanied Dorieus, and died with him, was Philip
the son of Butacidas, a man of Crotona; who, after he had been betrothed
to a daughter of Telys the Sybarite, was banished from Crotona, whereupon
his marriage came to nought; and he in his disappointment took ship
and sailed to Cyrene. From thence he became a follower of Dorieus,
furnishing to the fleet a trireme of his own, the crew of which he
supported at his own charge. This Philip was an Olympian victor, and
the handsomest Greek of his day. His beauty gained him honours at
the hands of the Egestaeans which they never accorded to any one else;
for they raised a hero-temple over his grave, and they still worship
him with sacrifices.
Such then was the end of Dorieus, who if he had brooked the rule of
Cleomenes, and remained in Sparta, would have been king of Lacedaemon;
since Cleomenes, after reigning no great length of time, died without
male offspring, leaving behind him an only daughter, by name Gorgo.
Cleomenes, however, was still king when Aristagoras, tyrant of Miletus,
reached Sparta. At their interview, Aristagoras, according to the
report of the Lacedaemonians, produced a bronze tablet, whereupon
the whole circuit of the earth was engraved, with all its seas and
rivers. Discourse began between the two; and Aristagoras addressed
the Spartan king in these words following:- "Think it not strange,
O King Cleomenes, that I have been at the pains to sail hither; for
the posture of affairs, which I will now recount unto thee, made it
fitting. Shame and grief is it indeed to none so much as to us, that
the sons of the Ionians should have lost their freedom, and come to
be the slaves of others; but yet it touches you likewise, O Spartans,
beyond the rest of the Greeks, inasmuch as the pre-eminence over all
Greece appertains to you. We beseech you, therefore, by the common
gods of the Grecians, deliver the Ionians, who are your own kinsmen,
from slavery. Truly the task is not difficult; for the barbarians
are an unwarlike people; and you are the best and bravest warriors
in the whole world. Their mode of fighting is the following:- they
use bows and arrows and a short spear; they wear trousers in the field,
and cover their heads with turbans. So easy are they to vanquish!
Know too that the dwellers in these parts have more good things than
all the rest of the world put together- gold, and silver, and brass,
and embroidered garments, beasts of burthen, and bond-servants- all
which, if you only wish it, you may soon have for your own. The nations
border on one another, in the order which I will now explain. Next
to these Ionians" (here he pointed with his finger to the map of the
world which was engraved upon the tablet that he had brought with
him) "these Lydians dwell; their soil is fertile, and few people are
so rich in silver. Next to them," he continued, "come these Phrygians,
who have more flocks and herds than any race that I know, and more
plentiful harvests. On them border the Cappadocians, whom we Greeks
know by the name of Syrians: they are neighbours to the Cilicians,
who extend all the way to this sea, where Cyprus (the island which
you see here) lies. The Cilicians pay the king a yearly tribute of
five hundred talents. Next to them come the Armenians, who live here-
they too have numerous flocks and herds. After them come the Matieni,
inhabiting this country; then Cissia, this province, where you see
the river Choaspes marked, and likewise the town Susa upon its banks,
where the Great King holds his court, and where the treasuries are
in which his wealth is stored. Once masters of this city, you may
be bold to vie with Jove himself for riches. In the wars which ye
wage with your rivals of Messenia, with them of Argos likewise and
of Arcadia, about paltry boundaries and strips of land not so remarkably
good, ye contend with those who have no gold, nor silver even, which
often give men heart to fight and die. Must ye wage such wars, and
when ye might so easily be lords of Asia, will ye decide otherwise?"
Thus spoke Aristagoras; and Cleomenes replied to him,- "Milesian stranger,
three days hence I will give thee an answer."
So they proceeded no further at that time. When, however, the day
appointed for the answer came, and the two once more met, Cleomenes
asked Aristagoras, "how many days' journey it was from the sea of
the Ionians to the king's residence?" Hereupon Aristagoras, who had
managed the rest so cleverly, and succeeded in deceiving the king,
tripped in his speech and blundered; for instead of concealing the
truth, as he ought to have done if he wanted to induce the Spartans
to cross into Asia, he said plainly that it was a journey of three
months. Cleomenes caught at the words, and, preventing Aristagoras
from finishing what he had begun to say concerning the road, addressed
him thus:- "Milesian stranger, quit Sparta before sunset. This is
no good proposal that thou makest to the Lacedaemonians, to conduct
them a distance of three months' journey from the sea." When he had
thus spoken, Cleomenes went to his home.
But Aristagoras took an olive-bough in his hand, and hastened to the
king's house, where he was admitted by reason of his suppliant's pliant's
guise. Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes, and his only child, a girl
of about eight or nine years of age, happened to be there, standing
by her father's side. Aristagoras, seeing her, requested Cleomenes
to send her out of the room before he began to speak with him; but
Cleomenes told him to say on, and not mind the child. So Aristagoras
began with a promise of ten talents if the king would grant him his
request, and when Cleomenes shook his head, continued to raise his
offer till it reached fifty talents; whereupon the child spoke:- "Father,"
she said, "get up and go, or the stranger will certainly corrupt thee."
Then Cleomenes, pleased at the warning of his child, withdrew and
went into another room. Aristagoras quitted Sparta for good, not being
able to discourse any more concerning the road which led up to the
king.
Now the true account of the road in question is the following:- Royal
stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais;
and throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from
danger. In Lydia and Phrygia there are twenty stations within a distance
Of 94 1/2 parasangs. On leaving Phrygia the Halys has to be crossed;
and here are gates through which you must needs pass ere you can traverse
the stream. A strong force guards this post. When you have made the
passage, and are come into Cappadocia, 28 stations and 104 parasangs
bring you to the borders of Cilicia, where the road passes through
two sets of gates, at each of which there is a guard posted. Leaving
these behind, you go on through Cilicia, where you find three stations
in a distance of 15 1/2 parasangs. The boundary between Cilicia and
Armenia is the river Euphrates, which it is necessary to cross in
boats. In Armenia the resting-places are 15 in number, and the distance
is 56 1/2 parasangs. There is one place where a guard is posted. Four
large streams intersect this district, all of which have to be crossed
by means of boats. The first of these is the Tigris; the second and
the third have both of them the same name, though they are not only
different rivers, but do not even run from the same place. For the
one which I have called the first of the two has its source in Armenia,
while the other flows afterwards out of the country of the Matienians.
The fourth of the streams is called the Gyndes, and this is the river
which Cyrus dispersed by digging for it three hundred and sixty channels.
Leaving Armenia and entering the Matienian country, you have four
stations; these passed you find yourself in Cissia, where eleven stations
and 42 1/2 parasangs bring you to another navigable stream, the Choaspes,
on the banks of which the city of Susa is built. Thus the entire number
of the stations is raised to one hundred and eleven; and so many are
in fact the resting-places that one finds between Sardis and Susa.
If then the royal road be measured aright, and the parasang equals,
as it does, thirty furlongs, the whole distance from Sardis to the
palace of Memnon (as it is called), amounting thus to 450 parasangs,
would be 13,500 furlongs. Travelling then at the rate of 150 furlongs
a day, one will take exactly ninety days to perform the journey.
Thus when Aristagoras the Milesian told Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian
that it was a three months' journey from the sea up to the king, he
said no more than the truth. The exact distance (if any one desires
still greater accuracy) is somewhat more; for the journey from Ephesus
to Sardis must be added to the foregoing account; and this will make
the whole distance between the Greek Sea and Susa (or the city of
Memnon, as it is called) 14,040 furlongs; since Ephesus is distant
from Sardis 540 furlongs. This would add three days to the three months'
journey.
When Aristagoras left Sparta he hastened to Athens, which had got
quit of its tyrants in the way that I will now describe. After the
death of Hipparchus (the son of Pisistratus, and brother of the tyrant
Hippias), who, in spite of the clear warning he had received concerning
his fate in a dream, was slain by Harmodius and Aristogeiton (men
both of the race of the Gephyraeans), the oppression of the Athenians
continued by the space of four years; and they gained nothing, but
were worse used than before.
Now the dream of Hipparchus was the following:- The night before the
Panathenaic festival, he thought he saw in his sleep a tall and beautiful
man, who stood over him, and read him the following riddle:-
Bear thou unbearable woes with the all-bearing heart of a lion;
Never, be sure, shall wrong-doer escape the reward of wrong-doing.
As soon as day dawned he sent and submitted his dream to the interpreters,
after which he offered the averting sacrifices, and then went and
led the procession in which he perished.
The family of the Gephyraeans, to which the murderers of Hipparchus
belonged, according to their own account, came originally from Eretria.
My inquiries, however, have made it clear to me that they are in reality
Phoenicians, descendants of those who came with Cadmus into the country
now called Boeotia. Here they received for their portion the district
of Tanagra, in which they afterwards dwelt. On their expulsion from
this country by the Boeotians (which happened some time after that
of the Cadmeians from the same parts by the Argives) they took refuge
at Athens. The Athenians received them among their citizens upon set
terms, whereby they were excluded from a number of privileges which
are not worth mentioning.
Now the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus, and to whom the Gephyraei
belonged, introduced into Greece upon their arrival a great variety
of arts, among the rest that of writing, whereof the Greeks till then
had, as I think, been ignorant. And originally they shaped their letters
exactly like all the other Phoenicians, but afterwards, in course
of time, they changed by degrees their language, and together with
it the form likewise of their characters. Now the Greeks who dwelt
about those parts at that time were chiefly the Ionians. The Phoenician
letters were accordingly adopted by them, but with some variation
in the shape of a few, and so they arrived at the present use, still
calling the letters Phoenician, as justice required, after the name
of those who were the first to introduce them into Greece. Paper rolls
also were called from of old "parchments" by the Ionians, because
formerly when paper was scarce they used, instead, the skins of sheep
and goats- on which material many of the barbarians are even now wont
to write.
I myself saw Cadmeian characters engraved upon some tripods in the
temple of Apollo Ismenias in Boeotian Thebes, most of them shaped
like the Ionian. One of the tripods has the inscription following:-
Me did Amphitryon place, from the far Teleboans coming.
This would be about the age of Laius, the son of Labdacus, the son
of Polydorus, the son of Cadmus.
Another of the tripods has this legend in the hexameter measure:-
I to far-shooting Phoebus was offered by Scaeus the boxer,
When he had won at the games- a wondrous beautiful offering. This
might be Scaeus, the son of Hippocoon; and the tripod, if dedicated
by him, and not by another of the same name, would belong to the time
of Oedipus, the son of Laius.
The third tripod has also an inscription in hexameters, which runs
thus:-
King Laodamas gave this tripod to far-seeing Phoebus,
When he was set on the throne- a wondrous beautiful offering. It was
in the reign of this Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, that the Cadmeians
were driven by the Argives out of their country, and found a shelter
with the Encheleans. The Gephyraeans at that time remained in the
country, but afterwards they retired before the Boeotians, and took
refuge at Athens, where they have a number of temples for their separate
use, which the other Athenians are not allowed to enter- among the
rest, one of Achaean Ceres, in whose honour they likewise celebrate
special orgies.
Having thus related the dream which Hipparchus saw, and traced the
descent of the Gephyraeans, the family whereto his murderers belonged,
I must proceed with the matter whereof I was intending before to speak;
to wit, the way in which the Athenians got quit of their tyrants.
Upon the death of Hipparchus, Hippias, who was king, grew harsh towards
the Athenians; and the Alcaeonidae, an Athenian family which had been
banished by the Pisistratidae, joined the other exiles, and endeavoured
to procure their own return, and to free Athens, by force. They seized
and fortified Leipsydrium above Paeonia, and tried to gain their object
by arms; but great disasters befell them, and their purpose remained
unaccomplished. They therefore resolved to shrink from no contrivance
that might bring them success; and accordingly they contracted with
the Amphictyons to build the temple which now stands at Delphi, but
which in those days did not exist. Having done this, they proceeded,
being men of great wealth and members of an ancient and distinguished
family, to build the temple much more magnificently than the plan
obliged them. Besides other improvements, instead of the coarse stone
whereof by the contract the temple was to have been constructed, they
made the facings of Parian marble.
These same men, if we may believe the Athenians, during their stay
at Delphi persuaded the Pythoness by a bribe to tell the Spartans,
whenever any of them came to consult the oracle, either on their own
private affairs or on the business of the state, that they must free
Athens. So the Lacedaemonians, when they found no answer ever returned
to them but this, sent at last Anchimolius, the son of Aster- a man
of note among their citizens- at the head of an army against Athens,
with orders to drive out the Pisistratidae, albeit they were bound
to them by the closest ties of friendship. For they esteemed the things
of heaven more highly than the things of men. The troops went by sea
and were conveyed in transports. Anchimolius brought them to an anchorage
at Phalerum; and there the men disembarked. But the Pisistratidae,
who had previous knowledge of their intentions, had sent to Thessaly,
between which country and Athens there was an alliance, with a request
for aid. The Thessalians, in reply to their entreaties, sent them
by a public vote 1000 horsemen, under the command of their king, Cineas,
who was a Coniaean. When this help came, the Pisistratidae laid their
plan accordingly: they cleared the whole plain about Phalerum so as
to make it fit for the movements of cavalry, and then charged the
enemy's camp with their horse, which fell with such fury upon the
Lacedaemonians as to kill numbers, among the rest Anchimolius, the
general, and to drive the remainder to their ships. Such was the fate
of the first army sent from Lacedaemon, and the tomb of Anchimolius
may be seen to this day in Attica; it is at Alopecae (Foxtown), near
the temple of Hercules in Cynosargos.
Afterwards, the Lacedaemonians despatched a larger force against Athens,
which they put under the command of Cleomenes, son of Anaxandridas,
one of their kings. These troops were not sent by sea, but marched
by the mainland. When they were come into Attica, their first encounter
was with the Thessalian horse, which they shortly put to flight, killing
above forty men; the remainder made good their escape, and fled straight
to Thessaly. Cleomenes proceeded to the city, and, with the aid of
such of the Athenians as wished for freedom, besieged the tyrants,
who had shut themselves up in the Pelasgic fortress.
And now there had been small chance of the Pisistratidae falling into
the hands of the Spartans, who did not even design to sit down before
the place, which had moreover been well provisioned beforehand with
stores both of meat and drink,- nay, it is likely that after a few
days' blockade the Lacedaemonians would have quitted Attica altogether,
and gone back to Sparta- had not an event occurred most unlucky for
the besieged, and most advantageous for the besiegers. The children
of the Pisistratidae were made prisoners, as they were being removed
out of the country. By this calamity all their plans were deranged,
and-as the ransom of their children- they consented to the demands
of the Athenians, and agreed within five days' time to quit Attica.
Accordingly they soon afterwards left the country, and withdrew to
Sigeum on the Scamander, after reigning thirty-six years over the
Athenians. By descent they were Pylians, of the family of the Neleids,
to which Codrus and Melanthus likewise belonged, men who in former
times from foreign settlers became kings of Athens. And hence it was
that Hippocrates came to think of calling his son Pisistratus: he
named him after the Pisistratus who was a son of Nestor. Such then
was the mode in which the Athenians got quit of their tyrants. What
they did and suffered worthy of note from the time when they gained
their freedom until the revolt of Ionia from King Darius, and the
coming of Aristagoras to Athens with a request that the Athenians
would lend the Ionians aid, I shall now proceed to relate.
The power of Athens had been great before; but, now that the tyrants
were gone, it became greater than ever. The chief authority was lodged
with two persons, Clisthenes, of the family of the Alcmaeonids, who
is said to have been the persuader of the Pythoness, and Isagoras,
the son of Tisander, who belonged to a noble house, but whose pedigree
I am not able to trace further. Howbeit his kinsmen offer sacrifice
to the Carian Jupiter. These two men strove together for the mastery;
and Clisthenes, finding himself the weaker, called to his aid the
common people. Hereupon, instead of the four tribes among which the
Athenians had been divided hitherto, Clisthenes made ten tribes, and
parcelled out the Athenians among them. He likewise changed the names
of the tribes; for whereas they had till now been called after Geleon,
Aegicores, Argades, and Hoples, the four sons of Ion, Clisthenes set
these names aside, and called his tribes after certain other heroes,
all of whom were native, except Ajax. Ajax was associated because,
although a foreigner, he was a neighbour and an ally of Athens.
My belief is that in acting thus he did but imitate his maternal grandfather,
Clisthenes, king of Sicyon. This king, when he was at war with Argos,
put an end to the contests of the rhapsodists at Sicyon, because in
the Homeric poems Argos and the Argives were so constantly the theme
of song. He likewise conceived the wish to drive Adrastus, the son
of Talaus, out of his country, seeing that he was an Argive hero.
For Adrastus had a shrine at Sicyon, which yet stands in the market-place
of the town. Clisthenes therefore went to Delphi, and asked the oracle
if he might expel Adrastus. To this the Pythoness is reported to have
answered- "Adrastus is the Sicyonians' king, but thou art only a robber."
So when the god would not grant his request, he went home and began
to think how he might contrive to make Adrastus withdraw of his own
accord. After a while he hit upon a plan which he thought would succeed.
He sent envoys to Thebes in Boeotia, and informed the Thebans that
he wished to bring Melanippus, the son of Astacus, to Sicyon. The
Thebans consenting, Clisthenes carried Melanippus back with him, assigned
him a precinct within the government-house, and built him a shrine
there in the safest and strongest part. The reason for his so doing
(which I must not forbear to mention) was because Melanippus was Adrastus'
great enemy, having slain both his brother Mecistes and his son-in-law
Tydeus. Clisthenes, after assigning the precinct to Melanippus, took
away from Adrastus the sacrifices and festivals wherewith he had till
then been honoured, and transferred them to his adversary. Hitherto
the Sicyonians had paid extraordinary honours to Adrastus, because
the country had belonged to Polybus, and Adrastus was Polybus' daughter's
son; whence it came to pass that Polybus, dying childless, left Adrastus
his kingdom. Besides other ceremonies, it had been their wont to honour
Adrastus with tragic choruses, which they assigned to him rather than
Bacchus, on account of his calamities. Clisthenes now gave the choruses
to Bacchus, transferring to Melanippus the rest of the sacred rites.
Such were his doings in the matter of Adrastus. With respect to the
Dorian tribes, not choosing the Sicyonians to have the same tribes
as the Argives, he changed all the old names for new ones; and here
he took special occasion to mock the Sicyonians, for he drew his new
names from the words "pig," and "ass," adding thereto the usual tribe-endings;
only in the case of his own tribe he did nothing of the sort, but
gave them a name drawn from his own kingly office. For he called his
own tribe the Archelai, or Rulers, while the others he named Hyatae,
or Pig-folk, Oneatae, or Assfolk, and Choereatae, or Swine-folk. The
Sicyonians kept these names, not only during the reign of Clisthenes,
but even after his death, by the space of sixty years: then, however,
they took counsel together, and changed to the well-known names of
Hyllaeans, Pamphylians, and Dymanatae, taking at the same time, as
a fourth name, the title of Aegialeans, from Aegialeus the son of
Adrastus.
Thus had Clisthenes the Sicyonian done. The Athenian Clisthenes, who
was grandson by the mother's side of the other, and had been named
after him, resolved, from contempt (as I believe) of the Ionians,
that his tribes should not be the same as theirs; and so followed
the pattern set him by his namesake of Sicyon. Having brought entirely
over to his own side the common people of Athens, whom he had before
disdained, he gave all the tribes new names, and made the number greater
than formerly; instead of the four phylarchs he established ten; he
likewise placed ten demes in each of the tribes; and he was, now that
the common people took his part, very much more powerful than his
adversaries.
Isagoras in his turn lost ground; and therefore, to counter-plot his
enemy, he called in Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, who had already,
at the time when he was besieging the Pisistratidae, made a contract
of friendship with him. A charge is even brought against Cleomenes
that he was on terms of too great familiarity with Isagoras's wife.
At this time the first thing that he did was to send a herald and
require that Clisthenes, and a large number of Athenians besides,
whom he called "The Accursed," should leave Athens. This message he
sent at the suggestion of Isagoras: for in the affair referred to,
the blood-guiltiness lay on the Alcmaeonidae and their partisans,
while he and his friends were quite clear of it.
The way in which "The Accursed" at Athens got their name, was the
following. There was a certain Athenian called Cylon, a victor at
the Olympic Games, who aspired to the sovereignty, and aided by a
number of his companions, who were of the same age with himself, made
an attempt to seize the citadel. But the attack failed; and Cylon
became a suppliant at the image. Hereupon the Heads of the Naucraries,
who at that time bore rule in Athens, induced the fugitives to remove
by a promise to spare their lives. Nevertheless they were all slain;
and the blame was laid on the Alcmaeonidae. All this happened before
the time of Pisistratus.
When the message of Cleomenes arrived, requiring Clisthenes and "The
Accursed" to quit the city, Clisthenes departed of his own accord.
Cleomenes, however, notwithstanding his departure, came to Athens,
with a small band of followers; and on his arrival sent into banishment
seven hundred Athenian families, which were pointed out to him by
Isagoras. Succeeding here, he next endeavoured to dissolve the council,
and to put the government into the hands of three hundred of the partisans
of that leader. But the council resisted, and refused to obey his
orders; whereupon Cleomenes, Isagoras, and their followers took possession
of the citadel. Here they were attacked by the rest of the Athenians,
who took the side of the council, and were besieged for the space
of two days: on the third day they accepted terms, being allowed-
at least such of them as were Lacedaemonians- to quit the country.
And so the word which came to Cleomenes received its fulfilment. For
when he first went up into the citadel, meaning to seize it, just
as he was entering the sanctuary of the goddess, in order to question
her, the priestess arose from her throne, before he had passed the
doors, and said- "Stranger from Lacedaemon, depart hence, and presume
not to enter the holy place- it is not lawful for a Dorian to set
foot there." But he answered, "Oh! woman, I am not a Dorian, but an
Achaean." Slighting this warning, Cleomenes made his attempt, and
so he was forced to retire, together with his Lacedaemonians. The
rest were cast into prison by the Athenians, and condemned to die-
among them Timasitheus the Delphian, of whose prowess and courage
I have great things which I could tell.
So these men died in prison. The Athenians directly afterwards recalled
Clisthenes, and the seven hundred families which Cleomenes had driven
out; and, further, they sent envoys to Sardis, to make an alliance
with the Persians, for they knew that war would follow with Cleomenes
and the Lacedaemonians. When the ambassadors reached Sardis and delivered
their message, Artaphernes, son of Hystaspes, who was at that time
governor of the Place, inquired of them "who they were, and in what
part of the world they dwelt, that they wanted to become allies of
the Persians?" The messengers told him; upon which he answered them
shortly- that "if the Athenians chose to give earth and water to King
Darius, he would conclude an alliance with them; but if not, they
might go home again." After consulting together, the envoys, anxious
to form the alliance, accepted the terms; but on their return to Athens,
they fell into deep disgrace on account of their compliance.
Meanwhile Cleomenes, who considered himself to have been insulted
by the Athenians both in word and deed, was drawing a force together
from all parts of the Peloponnese, without informing any one of his
object; which was to revenge himself on the Athenians, and to establish
Isagoras, who had escaped with him from the citadel, as despot of
Athens. Accordingly, with a large army, he invaded the district of
Eleusis, while the Boeotians, who had concerted measures with him,
took Oenoe and Hysiae, two country towns upon the frontier; and at
the same time the Chalcideans, on another side, plundered divers places
in Attica. The Athenians, notwithstanding that danger threatened them
from every quarter, put off all thought of the Boeotians and Chalcideans
till a future time, and marched against the Peloponnesians, who were
at Eleusis.
As the two hosts were about to engage, first of all the Corinthians,
bethinking themselves that they were perpetrating a wrong, changed
their minds, and drew off from the main army. Then Demaratus, son
of Ariston, who was himself king of Sparta and joint-leader of the
expedition, and who till now had had no sort of quarrel with Cleomenes,
followed their example. On account of this rupture between the kings,
a law was passed at Sparta, forbidding both monarchs to go out together
with the army, as had been the custom hitherto. The law also provided,
that, as one of the kings was to be left behind, one of the Tyndaridae
should also remain at home; whereas hitherto both had accompanied
the expeditions, as auxiliaries. So when the rest of the allies saw
that the Lacedaemonian kings were not of one mind, and that the Corinthian
troops had quitted their post, they likewise drew off and departed.
This was the fourth time that the Dorians had invaded Attica: twice
they came as enemies, and twice they came to do good service to the
Athenian people. Their first invasion took place at the period when
they founded Megara, and is rightly placed in the reign of Codrus
at Athens; the second and third occasions were when they came from
Sparta to drive out the Pisistratidae; the fourth was the present
attack, when Cleomenes, at the head of a Peloponnesian army, entered
at Eleusis. Thus the Dorians had now four times invaded Attica.
So when the Spartan army had broken up from its quarters thus ingloriously,
the Athenians, wishing to revenge themselves, marched first against
the Chalcideans. The Boeotians, however, advancing to the aid of the
latter as far as the Euripus, the Athenians thought it best to attack
them first. A battle was fought accordingly; and the Athenians gained
a very complete victory, killing a vast number of the enemy, and taking
seven hundred of them alive. After this, on the very same day, they
crossed into Euboea, and engaged the Chalcideans with the like success;
whereupon they left four thousand settlers upon the lands of the Hippobotae,-
which is the name the Chalcideans give to their rich men. All the
Chalcidean prisoners whom they took were put in irons, and kept for
a long time in close confinement, as likewise were the Boeotians,
until the ransom asked for them was paid; and this the Athenians fixed
at two minae the man. The chains wherewith they were fettered the
Athenians suspended in their citadel; where they were still to be
seen in my day, hanging against the wall scorched by the Median flames,
opposite the chapel which faces the west. The Athenians made an offering
of the tenth part of the ransom-money: and expended it on the brazen
chariot drawn by four steeds, which stands on the left hand immediately
that one enters the gateway of the citadel. The inscription runs as
follows:-
When Chalcis and Boeotia dared her might,
Athens subdued their pride in valorous fight;
Gave bonds for insults; and, the ransom paid,
From the full tenths these steeds for Pallas made.
Thus did the Athenians increase in strength. And it is plain enough,
not from this instance only, but from many everywhere, that freedom
is an excellent thing since even the Athenians, who, while they continued
under the rule of tyrants, were not a whit more valiant than any of
their neighbours, no sooner shook off the yoke than they became decidedly
the first of all. These things show that, while undergoing oppression,
they let themselves be beaten, since then they worked for a master;
but so soon as they got their freedom, each man was eager to do the
best he could for himself. So fared it now with the Athenians.
Meanwhile the Thebans, who longed to be revenged on the Athenians,
had sent to the oracle, and been told by the Pythoness that of their
own strength they would be unable to accomplish their wish: "they
must lay the matter," she said, "before the many-voiced, and ask the
aid of those nearest them." The messengers, therefore, on their return,
called a meeting, and laid the answer of the oracle before the people,
who no sooner heard the advice to "ask the aid of those nearest them"
than they exclaimed- "What! are not they who dwell the nearest to
us the men of Tanagra, of Coronaea, and Thespiae? Yet these men always
fight on our side, and have aided us with a good heart all through
the war. Of what use is it to ask them? But maybe this is not the
true meaning of the oracle."
As they were thus discoursing one with another, a certain man, informed
of the debate, cried out-"Methinks that I understand what course the
oracle would recommend to us. Asopus, they say, had two daughters,
Thebe and Egina. The god means that, as these two were sisters, we
ought to ask the Eginetans to lend us aid." As no one was able to
hit on any better explanation, the Thebans forthwith sent messengers
to Egina, and, according to the advice of the oracle, asked their
aid, as the people "nearest to them." In answer to this petition the
Eginetans said that they would give them the Aeacidae for helpers.
The Thebans now, relying on the assistance of the Aeacidae, ventured
to renew the war; but they met with so rough a reception, that they
resolved to send to the Eginetans again, returning the Aeacidae, and
beseeching them to send some men instead. The Eginetans, who were
at that time a most flourishing people, elated with their greatness,
and at the same time calling to mind their ancient feud with Athens,
agreed to lend the Thebans aid, and forthwith went to war with the
Athenians, without even giving them notice by a herald. The attention
of these latter being engaged by the struggle with the Boeotians,
the Eginetans in their ships of war made descents upon Attica, plundered
Phalerum, and ravaged a vast number of the townships upon the sea-board,
whereby the Athenians suffered very grievous damage.
The ancient feud between the Eginetans and Athenians arose out of
the following circumstances. Once upon a time the land of Epidaurus
would bear no crops; and the Epidaurians sent to consult the oracle
of Delphi concerning their affliction. The answer bade them set up
the images of Damia and Auxesia, and promised them better fortune
when that should be done. "Shall the images be made of bronze or stone?"
the Epidaurians asked; but the Pythoness replied, "Of neither: but
let them be made of the garden olive." Then the Epidaurians sent to
Athens and asked leave to cut olive wood in Attica, believing the
Athenian olives to be the holiest; or, according to others, because
there were no olives at that time anywhere else in all the world but
at Athens.' The Athenians answered that they would give them leave,
but on condition of their bringing offerings year by year to Minerva
Polias and to Erechtheus. The Epidaurians agreed, and having obtained
what they wanted, made the images of olive wood, and set them up in
their own country. Henceforth their land bore its crops; and they
duly paid the Athenians what had been agreed upon.
Anciently, and even down to the time when this took place, the Eginetans
were in all things subject to the Epidaurians, and had to cross over
to Epidaurus for the trial of all suits in which they were engaged
one with another. After this, however, the Eginetans built themselves
ships, and, growing proud, revolted from the Epidaurians. Having thus
come to be at enmity with them, the Eginetans, who were masters of
the sea, ravaged Epidaurus, and even carried off these very images
of Damia and Auxesia, which they set up in their own country, in the
interior, at a place called Oea, about twenty furlongs from their
city. This done, they fixed a worship for the images, which consisted
in part of sacrifices, in part of female satiric choruses; while at
the same time they appointed certain men to furnish the choruses,
ten for each goddess. These choruses did not abuse men, but only the
women of the country. Holy orgies of a similar kind were in use also
among the Epidaurians, and likewise another sort of holy orgies, whereof
it is not lawful to speak.
After the robbery of the images the Epidaurians ceased to make the
stipulated payments to the Athenians, wherefore the Athenians sent
to Epidaurus to remonstrate. But the Epidaurians proved to them that
they were not guilty of any wrong:-"While the images continued in
their country," they said, "they had duly paid the offerings according
to the agreement; now that the images had been taken from them, they
were no longer under any obligation to pay: the Athenians should make
their demand of the Eginetans, in whose possession the figures now
were." Upon this the Athenians sent to Egina, and demanded the images
back; but the Eginetans answered that the Athenians had nothing whatever
to do with them.
After this the Athenians relate that they sent a trireme to Egina
with certain citizens on board, and that these men, who bore commission
from the state, landed in Egina, and sought to take the images away,
considering them to be their own, inasmuch as they were made of their
wood. And first they endeavoured to wrench them from their pedestals,
and so carry them off; but failing herein, they in the next place
tied ropes to them, and set to work to try if they could haul them
down. In the midst of their hauling suddenly there was a thunderclap,
and with the thunderclap an earthquake; and the crew of the trireme
were forthwith seized with madness, and, like enemies, began to kill
one another; until at last there was but one left, who returned alone
to Phalerum.
Such is the account given by the Athenians. The Eginetans deny that
there was only a single vessel- "Had there been only one," they say,
"or no more than a few, they would easily have repulsed the attack,
even if they had had no fleet at all; but the Athenians came against
them with a large number of ships, wherefore they gave way, and did
not hazard a battle." They do not however explain clearly whether
it was from a conviction of their own inferiority at sea that they
yielded, or whether it was for the purpose of doing that which in
fact they did. Their account is that the Athenians, disembarking from
their ships, when they found that no resistance was offered, made
for the statues, and failing to wrench them from their pedestals,
tied ropes to them and began to haul. Then, they say- and some people
will perhaps believe them, though I for my part do not- the two statues,
as they were being dragged and hauled, fell down both upon their knees;
in which attitude they still remain. Such, according to them, was
the conduct of the Athenians; they meanwhile, having learnt beforehand
what was intended, had prevailed on the Argives to hold themselves
in readiness; and the Athenians accordingly were but just landed on
their coasts when the Argives came to their aid. Secretly and silently
they crossed over from Epidaurus, and, before the Athenians were aware,
cut off their retreat to their ships, and fell upon them; and the
thunder came exactly at that moment, and the earthquake with it.
The Argives and the Eginetans both agree in giving this account; and
the Athenians themselves acknowledge that but one of their men returned
alive to Attica. According to the Argives, he escaped from the battle
in which the rest of the Athenian troops were destroyed by them. According
to the Athenians, it was the god who destroyed their troops; and even
this one man did not escape, for he perished in the following manner.
When he came back to Athens, bringing word of the calamity, the wives
of those who had been sent out on the expedition took it sorely to
heart that he alone should have survived the slaughter of all the
rest;- they therefore crowded round the man, and struck him with the
brooches by which their dresses were fastened each, as she struck,
asking him where he had left her husband. And the man died in this
way. The Athenians thought the deed of the women more horrible even
than the fate of the troops; as however they did not know how else
to punish them, they changed their dress and compelled them to wear
the costume of the Ionians. Till this time the Athenian women had
worn a Dorian dress, shaped nearly like that which prevails at Corinth.
Henceforth they were made to wear the linen tunic, which does not
require brooches.
In very truth, however, this dress is not originally Ionian, but Carian;
for anciently the Greek women all wore the costume which is now called
the Dorian. It is said further that the Argives and Eginetans made
it a custom, on this same account, for their women to wear brooches
half as large again as formerly, and to offer brooches rather than
anything else in the temple of these goddesses. They also forbade
the bringing of anything Attic into the temple, were it even a jar
of earthenware, and made a law that none but native drinking vessels
should be used there in time to come. From this early age to my own
day the Argive and Eginetan women have always continued to wear their
brooches larger than formerly, through hatred of the Athenians.
Such then was the origin of the feud which existed between the Eginetans
and the Athenians. Hence, when the Thebans made their application
for succour, the Eginetans, calling to mind the matter of images,
gladly lent their aid to the Boeotians. They ravaged all the sea-coast
of Attica; and the Athenians were about to attack them in return,
when they were stopped by the oracle of Delphi, which bade them wait
till thirty years had passed from the time that the Eginetans did
the wrong, and in the thirty-first year, having first set apart a
precinct for Aeacus, then to begin the war. "So should they succeed
to their wish," the oracle said; "but if they went to war at once,
though they would still conquer the island in the end, yet they must
go through much suffering and much exertion before taking it." On
receiving this warning the Athenians set apart a precinct for Aeacus-
the same which still remains dedicated to him in their market-place-
but they could not hear with any patience of waiting thirty years,
after they had suffered such grievous wrong at the hands of the Eginetans.
Accordingly they were making ready to take their revenge when a fresh
stir on the part of the Lacedaemonians hindered their projects. These
last had become aware of the truth- how that the Alcmaeonidae had
practised on the Pythoness, and the Pythoness had schemed against
themselves, and against the Pisistratidae; and the discovery was a
double grief to them, for while they had driven their own sworn friends
into exile, they found that they had not gained thereby a particle
of good will from Athens. They were also moved by certain prophecies,
which declared that many dire calamities should befall them at the
hands of the Athenians. Of these in times past they had been ignorant;
but now they had become acquainted with them by means of Cleomenes,
who had brought them with him to Sparta, having found them in the
Athenian citadel, where they had been left by the Pisistratidae when
they were driven from Athens: they were in the temple, and Cleomenes
having discovered them, carried them off.
So when the Lacedaemonians obtained possession of the prophecies,
and saw that the Athenians were growing in strength, and had no mind
to acknowledge any subjection to their control, it occurred to them
that, if the people of Attica were free, they would be likely to be
as powerful as themselves, but if they were oppressed by a tyranny,
they would be weak and submissive. Under this feeling they sent and
recalled Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, from Sigeum upon the Hellespont,
where the Pisistratidae had taken shelter. Hippias came at their bidding,
and the Spartans on his arrival summoned deputies from all their other
allies, and thus addressed the assembly:-
"Friends and brothers in arms, we are free to confess that we did
lately a thing which was not right. Misled by counterfeit oracles,
we drove from their country those who were our sworn and true friends,
and who had, moreover, engaged to keep Athens in dependence upon us;
and we delivered the government into the hands of an unthankful people-
a people who no sooner got their freedom by our means, and grew in
power, than they turned us and our king, with every token of insult,
out of their city. Since then they have gone on continually raising
their thoughts higher, as their neighbours of Boeotia and Chalcis
have already discovered to their cost, and as others too will presently
discover if they shall offend them. Having thus erred, we will endeavour
now, with your help, to remedy the evils we have caused, and to obtain
vengeance on the Athenians. For this cause we have sent for Hippias
to come here, and have summoned you likewise from your several states,
that we may all now with heart and hand unite to restore him to Athens,
and thereby give him back that which we took from him formerly."
(SS 1.) Such was the address of the Spartans. The greater number of
the allies listened without being persuaded. None however broke silence
but Sosicles the Corinthian, who exclaimed-
"Surely the heaven will soon be below, and the earth above, and men
will henceforth live in the sea, and fish take their place upon the
dry land, since you, Lacedaemonians, propose to put down free governments
in the cities of Greece, and to set up tyrannies in their room. There
is nothing in the whole world so unjust, nothing so bloody, as a tyranny.
If, however, it seems to you a desirable thing to have the cities
under despotic rule, begin by putting a tyrant over yourselves, and
then establish despots in the other states. While you continue yourselves,
as you have always been, unacquainted with tyranny, and take such
excellent care that Sparta may not suffer from it, to act as you are
now doing is to treat your allies unworthily. If you knew what tyranny
was as well as ourselves, you would be better advised than you now
are in regard to it. (SS 2.) The government at Corinth was once an
oligarchy - a single race, called Bacchiadae, who intermarried only
among themselves, held the management of affairs. Now it happened
that Amphion, one of these, had a daughter, named Labda, who was lame,
and whom therefore none of the Bacchiadae would consent to marry;
so she was taken to wife by Aetion, son of Echecrates, a man of the
township of Petra, who was, however, by descent of the race of the
Lapithae, and of the house of Caeneus. Aetion, as he had no child,
either by this wife or by any other, went to Delphi to consult the
oracle concerning the matter. Scarcely had he entered the temple when
the Pythoness saluted him in these words-
No one honours thee now, Aetion, worthy of honour-
Labda shall soon be a mother- her offspring a rock, that will one
day
Fall on the kingly race, and right the city of Corinth. By some chance
this address of the oracle to Aetion came to the ears of the Bacchiadae,
who till then had been unable to perceive the meaning of another earlier
prophecy which likewise bore upon Corinth, and pointed to the same
event as Aetion's prediction. It was the following:-
When mid the rocks an eagle shall bear a carnivorous lion,
Mighty and fierce, he shall loosen the limbs of many beneath them-
Brood ye well upon this, all ye Corinthian people,
Ye who dwell by fair Peirene, and beetling Corinth.
(SS 3.) The Bacchiadae had possessed this oracle for some time; but
they were quite at a loss to know what it meant until they heard the
response given to Aetion; then however they at once perceived its
meaning, since the two agreed so well together. Nevertheless, though
the bearing of the first prophecy was now clear to them, they remained
quiet, being minded to put to death the child which Aetion was expecting.
As soon, therefore, as his wife was delivered, they sent ten of their
number to the township where Aetion lived, with orders to make away
with the baby. So the men came to Petra, and went into Aetion's house,
and there asked if they might see the child; and Labda, who knew nothing
of their purpose, but thought their inquiries arose from a kindly
feeling towards her husband, brought the child, and laid him in the
arms of one of them. Now they had agreed by the way that whoever first
got hold of the child should dash it against the ground. It happened,
however, by a providential chance, that the babe, just as Labda put
him into the man's arms, smiled in his face. The man saw the smile,
and was touched with pity, so that he could not kill it; he therefore
passed it on to his next neighbour, who gave it to a third; and so
it went through all the ten without any one choosing to be the murderer.
The mother received her child back; and the men went out of the house,
and stood near the door, and there blamed and reproached one another;
chiefly however accusing the man who had first had the child in his
arms, because he had not done as had been agreed upon. At last, after
much time had been thus spent, they resolved to go into the house
again and all take part in the murder. (SS 4.) But it was fated that
evil should come upon Corinth from the progeny of Aetion; and so it
chanced that Labda, as she stood near the door, heard all that the
men said to one another, and fearful of their changing their mind,
and returning to destroy her baby, she carried him off and hid him
in what seemed to her the most unlikely place to be suspected, viz.,
a 'cypsel' or corn-bin. She knew that if they came back to look for
the child, they would search all her house; and so indeed they did,
but not finding the child after looking everywhere, they thought it
best to go away, and declare to those by whom they had been sent that
they had done their bidding. And thus they reported on their return
home. (SS 5.) Aetion's son grew up, and, in remembrance of the danger
from which he had escaped, was named Cypselus, after the cornbin.
When he reached to man's estate, he went to Delphi, and on consulting
the oracle, received a response which was two-sided. It was the following:
See there comes to my dwelling a man much favour'd of fortune,
Cypselus, son of Aetion, and king of the glorious Corinth-
He and his children too, but not his children's children. Such was
the oracle; and Cypselus put so much faith in it that he forthwith
made his attempt, and thereby became master of Corinth. Having thus
got the tyranny, he showed himself a harsh ruler- many of the Corinthians
he drove into banishment, many he deprived of their fortunes, and
a still greater number of their lives. (SS 6.) His reign lasted thirty
years, and was prosperous to its close; insomuch that he left the
government to Periander, his son. This prince at the beginning of
his reign was of a milder temper than his father; but after he corresponded
by means of messengers with Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, he became
even more sanguinary. On one occasion he sent a herald to ask Thrasybulus
what mode of government it was safest to set up in order to rule with
honour. Thrasybulus led the messenger without the city, and took him
into a field of corn, through which he began to walk, while he asked
him again and again concerning his coming from Corinth, ever as he
went breaking off and throwing away all such ears of corn as over-topped
the rest. In this way he went through the whole field, and destroyed
all the best and richest part of the crop; then, without a word, he
sent the messenger back. On the return of the man to Corinth, Periander
was eager to know what Thrasybulus had counselled, but the messenger
reported that he had said nothing; and he wondered that Periander
had sent him to so strange a man, who seemed to have lost his senses,
since he did nothing but destroy his own property. And upon this he
told how Thrasybulus had behaved at the interview. (SS 7.) Periander,
perceiving what the action meant, and knowing that Thrasybulus advised
the destruction of all the leading citizens, treated his subjects
from this time forward with the very greatest cruelty. Where Cypselus
had spared any, and had neither put them to death nor banished them,
Periander completed what his father had left unfinished. One day he
stripped all the women of Corinth stark naked, for the sake of his
own wife Melissa. He had sent messengers into Thesprotia to consult
the oracle of the dead upon the Acheron concerning a pledge which
had been given into his charge by a stranger, and Melissa appeared,
but refused to speak or tell where the pledge was- 'she was chill,'
she said, 'having no clothes; the garments buried with her were of
no manner of use, since they had not been burnt. And this should be
her token to Periander, that what she said was true- the oven was
cold when he baked his loaves in it.' When this message was brought
him, Periander knew the token; wherefore he straightway made proclamation,
that all the wives of the Corinthians should go forth to the temple
of Juno. So the women apparelled themselves in their bravest, and
went forth, as if to a festival. Then, with the help of his guards,
whom he had placed for the purpose, he stripped them one and all,
making no difference between the free women and the slaves; and, taking
their clothes to a pit, he called on the name of Melissa, and burnt
the whole heap. This done, he sent a second time to the oracle; and
Melissa's ghost told him where he would find the stranger's pledge.
Such, O Lacedaemonians! is tyranny, and such are the deeds which spring
from it. We Corinthians marvelled greatly when we first knew of your
having sent for Hippias; and now it surprises us still more to hear
you speak as you do. We adjure you, by the common gods of Greece,
plant not despots in her cities. If however you are determined, if
you persist, against all justice, in seeking to restore Hippias- know,
at least, that the Corinthians will not approve your conduct."
When Sosicles, the deputy from Corinth, had thus spoken, Hippias replied,
and, invoking the same gods, he said-"Of a surety the Corinthians
will, beyond all others, regret the Pisistratidae, when the fated
days come for them to be distressed by the Athenians." Hippias spoke
thus because he knew the prophecies better than any man living. But
the rest of the allies, who till Sosicles spoke had remained quiet,
when they heard him utter his thoughts thus boldly, all together broke
silence, and declared themselves of the same mind; and withal, they
conjured the Lacedaemonians "not to revolutionise a Grecian city."
And in this way the enterprise came to nought.
Hippias hereupon withdrew; and Amyntas the Macedonian offered him
the city of Anthemus, while the Thessalians were willing to give him
Iolcos: but he would accept neither the one nor the other, preferring
to go back to Sigeum, which city Pisistratus had taken by force of
arms from the Mytilenaeans. Pisistratus, when he became master of
the place, established there as tyrant his own natural son, Hegesistratus,
whose mother was an Argive woman. But this prince was not allowed
to enjoy peaceably what his father had made over to him; for during
very many years there had been war between the Athenians of Sigeum
and the Mytilenaeans of the city called Achilleum. They of Mytilene
insisted on having the place restored to them: but the Athenians refused,
since they argued that the Aeolians had no better claim to the Trojan
territory than themselves, or than any of the other Greeks who helped
Menelaus on occasion of the rape of Helen.
War accordingly continued, with many and various incidents, whereof
the following was one. In a battle which was gained by the Athenians,
the poet Alcaeus took to flight, and saved himself, but lost his arms,
which fell into the hands of the conquerors. They hung them up in
the temple of Minerva at Sigeum; and Alcaeus made a poem, describing
his misadventure to his friend Melanippus, and sent it to him at Mytilene.
The Mytilenaeans and Athenians were reconciled by Periander, the son
of Cypselus, who was chosen by both parties as arbiter- he decided
that they should each retain that of which they were at the time possessed;
and Sigeum passed in this way under the dominion of Athens.
On the return of Hippias to Asia from Lacedaemon, he moved heaven
and earth to set Artaphernes against the Athenians, and did all that
lay in his power to bring Athens into subjection to himself and Darius.
So when the Athenians learnt what he was about, they sent envoys to
Sardis, and exhorted the Persians not to lend an ear to the Athenian
exiles. Artaphernes told them in reply, "that if they wished to remain
safe, they must receive back Hippias." The Athenians, when this answer
was reported to them, determined not to consent, and therefore made
up their minds to be at open enmity with the Persians.
The Athenians had come to this decision, and were already in bad odour
with the Persians, when Aristagoras the Milesian, dismissed from Sparta
by Cleomenes the Lacedaemonian, arrived at Athens. He knew that, after
Sparta, Athens was the most powerful of the Grecian states. Accordingly
he appeared before the people, and, as he had done at Sparta, spoke
to them of the good things which there were in Asia, and of the Persian
mode of fight- how they used neither shield nor spear, and were very
easy to conquer. All this he urged, and reminded them also that Miletus
was a colony from Athens, and therefore ought to receive their succour,
since they were so powerful- and in the earnestness of his entreaties,
he cared little what he promised- till, at the last, he prevailed
and won them over. It seems indeed to be easier to deceive a multitude
than one man- for Aristagoras, though he failed to impose on Cleomenes
the Lacedaemonian, succeeded with the Athenians, who were thirty thousand.
Won by his persuasions, they voted that twenty ships should be sent
to the aid of the Ionians, under the command of Melanthius, one of
the citizens, a man of mark in every way. These ships were the beginning
of mischief both to the Greeks and to the barbarians.
Aristagoras sailed away in advance, and when he reached Miletus, devised
a plan, from which no manner of advantage could possibly accrue to
the Ionians;- indeed, in forming it, he did not aim at their benefit,
but his sole wish was to annoy King Darius. He sent a messenger into
Phrygia to those Paeonians who had been led away captive by Megabazus
from the river Strymon, and who now dwelt by themselves in Phrygia,
having a tract of land and a hamlet of their own. This man, when he
reached the Paeonians, spoke thus to them:-
"Men of Paeonia, Aristagoras, king of Miletus, has sent me to you,
to inform you that you may now escape, if you choose to follow the
advice he proffers. All Ionia has revolted from the king; and the
way is open to you to return to your own land. You have only to contrive
to reach the sea-coast; the rest shall be our business."
When the Paeonians heard this, they were exceedingly rejoiced, and,
taking with them their wives and children, they made all speed to
the coast; a few only remaining in Phrygia through fear. The rest,
having reached the sea, crossed over to Chios, where they had just
landed, when a great troop of Persian horse came following upon their
heels, and seeking to overtake them. Not succeeding, however, they
sent a message across to Chios, and begged the Paeonians to come back
again. These last refused, and were conveyed by the Chians from Chios
to Lesbos, and by the Lesbians thence to Doriscus; from which place
they made their way on foot to Paeonia.
The Athenians now arrived with a fleet of twenty sail, and brought
also in their company five triremes of the Eretrians; which had joined
the expedition, not so much out of goodwill towards Athens, as to
pay a debt which they already owed to the people of Miletus. For in
the old war between the Chalcideans and Eretrians, the Milesians fought
on the Eretrian side throughout, while the Chalcideans had the help
of the Samian people. Aristagoras, on their arrival, assembled the
rest of his allies, and proceeded to attack Sardis, not however leading
the army in person, but appointing to the command his own brother
Charopinus and Hermophantus, one of the citizens, while he himself
remained behind in Miletus.
The Ionians sailed with this fleet to Ephesus, and, leaving their
ships at Coressus in the Ephesian territory, took guides from the
city, and went up the country with a great host. They marched along
the course of the river Cayster, and, crossing over the ridge of Tmolus,
came down upon Sardis and took it, no man opposing them;- the whole
city fell into their hands, except only the citadel, which Artaphernes
defended in person, having with him no contemptible force.
Though, however, they took the city, they did not succeed in plundering
it; for, as the houses in Sardis were most of them built of reeds,
and even the few which were of brick had a reed thatching for their
roof, one of them was no sooner fired by a soldier than the flames
ran speedily from house to house, and spread over the whole place.
As the fire raged, the Lydians and such Persians as were in the city,
inclosed on every side by the flames, which had seized all the skirts
of the town, and finding themselves unable to get out, came in crowds
into the market-place, and gathered themselves upon the banks of the
Pactolus This stream, which comes down from Mount Tmolus, and brings
the Sardians a quantity of gold-dust, runs directly through the market
place of Sardis, and joins the Hermus, before that river reaches the
sea. So the Lydians and Persians, brought together in this way in
the market-place and about the Pactolus, were forced to stand on their
defence; and the Ionians, when they saw the enemy in part resisting,
in part pouring towards them in dense crowds, took fright, and drawing
off to the ridge which is called Tmolus when night came, went back
to their ships.
Sardis however was burnt, and, among other buildings, a temple of
the native goddess Cybele was destroyed; which was the reason afterwards
alleged by the Persians for setting on fire the temples of the Greeks.
As soon as what had happened was known, all the Persians who were
stationed on this side the Halys drew together, and brought help to
the Lydians. Finding however, when they arrived, that the Ionians
had already withdrawn from Sardis, they set off, and, following close
upon their track, came up with them at Ephesus. The Ionians drew out
against them in battle array; and a fight ensued, wherein the Greeks
had very greatly the worse. Vast numbers were slain by the Persians:
among other men of note, they killed the captain of the Eretrians,
a certain Eualcidas, a man who had gained crowns at the Games, and
received much praise from Simonides the Cean. Such as made their escape
from the battle, dispersed among the several cities.
So ended this encounter. Afterwards the Athenians quite forsook the
Ionians, and, though Aristagoras besought them much by his ambassadors,
refused to give him any further help. Still the Ionians, notwithstanding
this desertion, continued unceasingly their preparations to carry
on the war against the Persian king, which their late conduct towards
him had rendered unavoidable. Sailing into the Hellespont, they brought
Byzantium, and all the other cities in that quarter, under their sway.
Again, quitting the Hellespont, they went to Caria, and won the greater
part of the Carians to their side; while Caunus, which had formerly
refused to join with them, after the burning of Sardis, came over
likewise.
All the Cyprians too, excepting those of Amathus, of their own proper
motion espoused the Ionian cause. The occasion of their revolting
from the Medes was the following. There was a certain Onesilus, younger
brother of Gorgus, king of Salamis, and son of Chersis, who was son
of Siromus, and grandson of Evelthon. This man had often in former
times entreated Gorgus to rebel against the king; but, when he heard
of the revolt of the Ionians, he left him no peace with his importunity.
As, however, Gorgus would not hearken to him, he watched his occasion,
and when his brother had gone outside the town, he with his partisans
closed the gates upon him. Gorgus, thus deprived of his city, fled
to the Medes; and Onesilus, being now king of Salamis, sought to bring
about a revolt of the whole of Cyprus. All were prevailed on except
the Amathusians, who refused to listen to him; whereupon Onesilus
sate down before Amathus, and laid siege to it.
While Onesilus was engaged in the siege of Amathus, King Darius received
tidings of the taking and burning of Sardis by the Athenians and Ionians;
and at the same time he learnt that the author of the league, the
man by whom the whole matter had been Planned and contrived, was Aristagoras
the Milesian. It is said that he no sooner understood what had happened,
than, laying aside all thought concerning the Ionians, who would,
he was sure, pay dear for their rebellion, he asked, "Who the Athenians
were?" and, being informed, called for his bow, and placing an arrow
on the string, shot upward into the sky, saying, as he let fly the
shaft- "Grant me, Jupiter, to revenge myself on the Athenians!" After
this speech, he bade one of his servants every day, when his dinner
was spread, three times repeat these words to him- "Master, remember
the Athenians."
Then he summoned into his presence Histiaeus if Miletus, whom he had
kept at his court for so long a time; and on his appearance addressed
him thus "I am told, O Histiaeus, that thy lieutenant, to whom thou
hast given Miletus in charge, has raised a rebellion against me. He
has brought men from the other continent to contend with me, and,
prevailing on the Ionians- whose conduct I shall know how to recompense-
to join with this force, he has robbed me of Sardis! Is this as it
should be, thinkest thou Or can it have been done without thy knowledge
and advice? Beware lest it be found hereafter that the blame of these
acts is thine."
Histiaeus answered- "What words are these, O king, to which thou hast
given utterance? I advise aught from which unpleasantness of any kind,
little or great, should come to thee! What could I gain by so doing?
Or what is there that I lack now? Have I not all that thou hast, and
am I not thought worthy to partake all thy counsels? If my lieutenant
has indeed done as thou sayest, be sure he has done it all of his
own head. For my part, I do not think it can really be that the Milesians
and my lieutenant have raised a rebellion against thee. But if they
have indeed committed aught to thy hurt, and the tidings are true
which have come to thee, judge thou how ill-advised thou wert to remove
me from the sea-coast. The Ionians, it seems, have waited till I was
no longer in sight, and then sought to execute that which they long
ago desired; whereas, if I had been there, not a single city would
have stirred. Suffer me then to hasten at my best speed to Ionia,
that I may place matters there upon their former footing, and deliver
up to thee the deputy of Miletus, who has caused all the troubles.
Having managed this business to thy heart's content, I swear by all
the gods of thy royal house, I will not put off the clothes in which
I reach Ionia till I have made Sardinia, the biggest island in the
world, thy tributary."
Histiaeus spoke thus, wishing to deceive the king; and Darius, persuaded
by his words, let him go; only bidding him be sure to do as he had
promised, and afterwards come back to Susa.
In the meantime- while the tidings of the burning of Sardis were reaching
the king, and Darius was shooting the arrow and having the conference
with Histiaeus, and the latter, by permission of Darius, was hastening
down to the sea- in Cyprus the following events took place. Tidings
came to Onesilus, the Salaminian, who was still besieging Amathus,
that a certain Artybius, a Persian, was looked for to arrive in Cyprus
with a great Persian armament. So Onesilus, when the news reached
him, sent off heralds to all parts of Ionia, and besought the Ionians
to give him aid. After brief deliberation, these last in full force
passed over into the island; and the Persians about the same time
crossed in their ships from Cilicia, and proceeded by land to attack
Salamis; while the Phoenicians, with the fleet, sailed round the promontory
which goes by the name of "the Keys of Cyprus."
In this posture of affairs the princes of Cyprus called together the
captains of the Ionians, and thus addressed them:-
"Men of Ionia, we Cyprians leave it to you to choose whether you will
fight with the Persians or with the Phoenicians. If it be your pleasure
to try your strength on land against the Persians, come on shore at
once, and array yourselves for the battle; we will then embark aboard
your ships and engage the Phoenicians by sea. If, on the other hand,
ye prefer to encounter the Phoenicians, let that be your task: only
be sure, whichever part you choose, to acquit yourselves so that Ionia
and Cyprus, so far as depends on you, may preserve their freedom."
The Ionians made answer- "The commonwealth of Ionia sent us here to
guard the sea, not to make over our ships to you, and engage with
the Persians on shore. We will therefore keep the post which has been
assigned to us, and seek therein to be of some service. Do you, remembering
what you suffered when you were the slaves of the Medes, behave like
brave warriors."
Such was the reply of the Ionians. Not long afterwards the Persians
advanced into the plain before Salamis, and the Cyprian kings ranged
their troops in order of battle against them, placing them so that
while the rest of the Cyprians were drawn up against the auxiliaries
of the enemy, the choicest troops of the Salaminians and the Solians
were set to oppose the Persians. At the same time Onesilus, of his
own accord, took post opposite to Artybius, the Persian general.
Now Artybius rode a horse which had been trained to rear up against
a foot-soldier. Onesilus, informed of this, called to him his shield-bearer,
who was a Carian by nation, a man well skilled in war, and of daring
courage; and thus addressed him:- "I hear," he said, "that the horse
which Artybius rides, rears up and attacks with his fore legs and
teeth the man against whom his rider urges him. Consider quickly therefore
and tell me which wilt thou undertake to encounter, the steed or the
rider?" Then the squire answered him, "Both, my liege, or either,
am I ready to undertake, and there is nothing that I will shrink from
at thy bidding. But I will tell thee what seems to me to make most
for thy interests. As thou art a prince and a general, I think thou
shouldest engage with one who is himself both a prince and also a
general. For then, if thou slayest thine adversary, 'twill redound
to thine honour, and if he slays thee (which may Heaven forefend!),
yet to fall by the hand of a worthy foe makes death lose half its
horror. To us, thy followers, leave his war-horse and his retinue.
And have thou no fear of the horse's tricks. I warrant that this is
the last time he will stand up against any one."
Thus spake the Carian; and shortly after, the two hosts joined battle
both by sea and land. And here it chanced that by sea the Ionians,
who that day fought as they have never done either before or since,
defeated the Phoenicians, the Samians especially distinguishing themselves.
Meanwhile the combat had begun on land, and the two armies were engaged
in a sharp struggle, when thus it fell out in the matter of the generals.
Artybius, astride upon his horse, charged down upon Onesilus, who,
as he had agreed with his shield-bearer, aimed his blow at the rider;
the horse reared and placed his fore feet upon the shield of Onesilus,
when the Carian cut at him with a reaping-hook, and severed the two
legs from the body. The horse fell upon the spot, and Artybius, the
Persian general, with him.
In the thick of the fight, Stesanor, tyrant of Curium, who commanded
no inconsiderable body of troops, went over with them to the enemy.
On this desertion of the Curians- Argive colonists, if report says
true- forthwith the war-chariots of the Salaminians followed the example
set them, and went over likewise; whereupon victory declared in favour
of the Persians; and the army of the Cyprians being routed, vast numbers
were slain, and among them Onesilus, the son of Chersis, who was the
author of the revolt, and Aristocyprus, king of the Solians. This
Aristocyprus was son of Philocyprus, whom Solon the Athenian, when
he visited Cyprus, praised in his poems beyond all other sovereigns.
The Amathusians, because Onesilus had laid siege to their town, cut
the head off his corpse, and took it with them to Amathus, where it
was set up over the gates. Here it hung till it became hollow; whereupon
a swarm of bees took possession of it, and filled it with a honeycomb.
On seeing this the Amathusians consulted the oracle, and were commanded
"to take down the head and bury it, and thenceforth to regard Onesilus
as a hero, and offer sacrifice to him year by year; so it would go
the better with them." And to this day the Amathusians do as they
were then bidden.
As for the Ionians who had gained the sea-fight, when they found that
the affairs of Onesilus were utterly lost and ruined, and that siege
was laid to all the cities of Cyprus excepting Salamis, which the
inhabitants had surrendered to Gorgus, the former king, forthwith
they left Cyprus, and sailed away home. Of the cities which were besieged,
Soli held out the longest: the Persians took it by undermining the
wall in the fifth month from the beginning of the siege.
Thus, after enjoying a year of freedom, the Cyprians were enslaved
for the second time. Meanwhile Daurises, who was married to one of
the daughters of Darius, together with Hymeas, Otanes, and other Persian
captains, who were likewise married to daughters of the king, after
pursuing the Ionians who had fought at Sardis, defeating them, and
driving them to their ships, divided their efforts against the different
cities, and proceeded in succession to take and sack each one of them.
Daurises attacked the towns upon the Hellespont, and took in as many
days the five cities of Dardanus, Abydos, Percote, Lampsacus, and
Paesus. From Paesus he marched against Parium; but on his way receiving
intelligence that the Carians had made common cause with the Ionians,
and thrown off the Persian yoke, he turned round, and, leaving the
Hellespont, marched away towards Caria.
The Carians by some chance got information of this movement before
Daurises arrived, and drew together their strength to a place called
"the White Columns," which is on the river Marsyas, a stream running
from the Idrian country, and emptying itself into the Maeander. Here
when they were met, many plans were put forth; but the best, in my
judgment, was that of Pixodarus, the son of Mausolus, a Cindyan, who
was married to a daughter of Syennesis, the Cilician king. His advice
was that the Carians should cross the Maeander, and fight with the
river at their back; that so, all chance of flight being cut off,
they might be forced to stand their ground, and have their natural
courage raised to a still higher pitch. His opinion, however, did
not prevail; it was thought best to make the enemy have the Maeander
behind them; that so, if they were defeated in the battle and put
to flight, they might have no retreat open, but be driven headlong
into the river.
The Persians soon afterwards approached, and, crossing the Maeander,
engaged the Carians upon the banks of the Marsyas; where for a long
time the battle was stoutly contested, but at last the Carians were
defeated, being overpowered by numbers. On the side of the Persians
there fell 2000, while the Carians had not fewer than 10,000 slain.
Such as escaped from the field of battle collected together at Labranda,
in the vast precinct of Jupiter Stratius- a deity worshipped only
by the Carians- and in the sacred grove of plane-trees. Here they
deliberated as to the best means of saving themselves, doubting whether
they would fare better if they gave themselves up to the Persians,
or if they abandoned Asia for ever.
As they were debating these matters a body of Milesians and allies
came to their assistance; whereupon the Carians, dismissing their
former thoughts, prepared themselves afresh for war, and on the approach
of the Persians gave them battle a second time. They were defeated,
however, with still greater loss than before; and while all the troops
engaged suffered severely, the blow fell with most force on the Milesians.
The Carians, some while after, repaired their ill fortune in another
action. Understanding that the Persians were about to attack their
cities, they laid an ambush for them on the road which leads to Pedasus;
the Persians, who were making a night-march, fell into the trap, and
the whole army was destroyed, together with the generals, Daurises,
Amorges, and Sisimaces: Myrsus too, the son of Gyges, was killed at
the same time. The leader of the ambush was Heraclides, the son of
Ibanolis, a man of Mylasa. Such was the way in which these Persians
perished.
In the meantime Hymeas, who was likewise one of those by whom the
Ionians were pursued after their attack on Sardis, directing his course
towards the Propontis, took Cius, a city of Mysia. Learning, however,
that Daurises had left the Hellespont, and was gone into Caria, he
in his turn quitted the Propontis, and marching with the army under
his command to the Hellespont, reduced all the Aeolians of the Troad,
and likewise conquered the Gergithae, a remnant of the ancient Teucrians.
He did not, however, quit the Troad, but, after gaining these successes,
was himself carried off by disease.
After his death, which happened as have related, Artaphernes, the
satrap of Sardis, and Otanes, the third general, were directed to
undertake the conduct of the war against Ionia and the neighbouring
Aeolis. By them Clazomenae in the former, and Cyme in the latter,
were recovered.
As the cities fell one after another, Aristagoras the Milesian (who
was in truth, as he now plainly showed, a man of but little courage),
notwithstanding that it was he who had caused the disturbances in
Ionia and made so great a commotion, began, seeing his danger, to
look about for means of escape. Being convinced that it was in vain
to endeavour to overcome King Darius, he called his brothers-in-arms
together, and laid before them the following project:- "'Twould be
well," he said, "to have some place of refuge, in case they were driven
out of Miletus. Should he go out at the head of a colony to Sardinia,
or should he sail to Myrcinus in Edonia, which Histiaeus had received
as a gift from King Darius, and had begun to fortify?"
To this question of Aristagoras, Hecataeus, the historian, son of
Hegesander, made answer that in his judgement neither place was suitable.
"Aristagoras should build a fort," he said, "in the island of Leros,
and, if driven from Miletus, should go there and bide his time; from
Leros attacks might readily be made, and he might re-establish himself
in Miletus." Such was the advice given by Hecataeus.
Aristagoras, however, was bent on retiring to Myrcinus. Accordingly,
he put the government of Miletus into the hands of one of the chief
citizens, named Pythagoras, and, taking with him all who liked to
go, sailed to Thrace, and there made himself master of the place in
question. From thence he proceeded to attack the Thracians; but here
he was cut off with his whole army, while besieging a city whose defenders
were anxious to accept terms of surrender.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK VI
Erato
Aristagoras, the author of the Ionian revolt, perished in the way
which I have described. Meanwhile Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus, who
had been allowed by Darius to leave Susa, came down to Sardis. On
his arrival, being asked by Artaphernes, the Sardian satrap, what
he thought was the reason that the Ionians had rebelled, he made answer
that he could not conceive, and it had astonished him greatly, pretending
to be quite unconscious of the whole business. Artaphernes, however,
who perceived that he was dealing dishonestly, and who had in fact
full knowledge of the whole history of the outbreak, said to him,
"I will tell thee how the case stands, Histiaeus: this shoe is of
thy stitching; Aristagoras has but put it on."
Such was the remark made by Artaphernes concerning the rebellion.
Histiaeus, alarmed at the knowledge which he displayed, so soon as
night fell, fled away to the coast. Thus he forfeited his word to
Darius; for though he had pledged himself to bring Sardinia, the biggest
island in the whole world, under the Persian yoke, he in reality sought
to obtain the direction of the war against the king. Crossing over
to Chios, he was there laid in bonds by the inhabitants, who accused
him of intending some mischief against them in the interest of Darius.
However, when the whole truth was laid before them, and they found
that Histiaeus was in reality a foe to the king, they forthwith set
him at large again.
After this the Ionians inquired of him for what reason he had so strongly
urged Aristagoras to revolt from the king, thereby doing their nation
so ill a service. In reply, he took good care not to disclose to them
the real cause, but told them that King Darius had intended to remove
the Phoenicians from their own country, and place them in Ionia, while
he planted the Ionians in Phoenicia, and that it was for this reason
he sent Aristagoras the order. Now it was not true that the king had
entertained any such intention, but Histiaeus succeeded hereby in
arousing the fears of the Ionians.
After this, Histiaeus, by means of a certain Hermippus, a native of
Atarneus, sent letters to many of the Persians in Sardis, who had
before held some discourse with him concerning a revolt. Hermippus,
however, instead of conveying them to the persons to whom they were
addressed, delivered them into the hands of Artaphernes, who, perceiving
what was on foot, commanded Hermippus to deliver the letters according
to their addresses, and then bring him back the answers which were
sent to Histiaeus. The traitors being in this way discovered, Artaphernes
put a number of Persians to death, and caused a commotion in Sardis.
As for Histiaeus, when his hopes in this matter were disappointed,
he persuaded the Chians to carry him back to Miletus; but the Milesians
were too well pleased at having got quit of Aristagoras to be anxious
to receive another tyrant into their country; besides which they had
now tasted liberty. They therefore opposed his return; and when he
endeavoured to force an entrance during the night, one of the inhabitants
even wounded him in the thigh. Having been thus rejected from his
country, he went back to Chios; whence, after failing in an attempt
to induce the Chians to give him ships, he crossed over to Mytilene,
where he succeeded in obtaining vessels from the Lesbians. They fitted
out a squadron of eight triremes, and sailed with him to the Hellespont,
where they took up their station, and proceeded to seize all the vessels
which passed out from the Euxine, unless the crews declared themselves
ready to obey his orders.
While Histiaeus and the Mytilenaeans were thus employed, Miletus was
expecting an attack from a vast armament, which comprised both a fleet
and also a land force. The Persian captains had drawn their several
detachments together, and formed them into a single army; and had
resolved to pass over all the other cities, which they regarded as
of lesser account, and to march straight on Miletus. Of the naval
states, Phoenicia showed the greatest zeal; but the fleet was composed
likewise of the Cyprians (who had so lately been brought under), the
Cilicians, and also the Egyptians.
While the Persians were thus making preparations against Miletus and
Ionia, the Ionians, informed of their intent, sent their deputies
to the Panionium, and held a council upon the posture of their affairs.
Hereat it was determined that no land force should be collected to
oppose the Persians, but that the Milesians should be left to defend
their own walls as they could; at the same time they agreed that the
whole naval force of the states, not excepting a single ship, should
be equipped, and should muster at Lade, a small island lying off Miletus-
to give battle on behalf of the place.
Presently the Ionians began to assemble in their ships, and with them
came the Aeolians of Lesbos; and in this way they marshalled their
line:- The wing towards the east was formed of the Milesians themselves,
who furnished eighty ships; next to them came the Prienians with twelve,
and the Myusians with three ships; after the Myusians were stationed
the Teians, whose ships were seventeen; then the Chians, who furnished
a hundred. The Erythraeans and Phocaeans followed, the former with
eight, the latter with three ships; beyond the Phocaeans were the
Lesbians, furnishing seventy; last of all came the Samians, forming
the western wing, and furnishing sixty vessels. The fleet amounted
in all to three hundred and fifty-three triremes. Such was the number
on the Ionian side.
On the side of the barbarians the number of vessels was six hundred.
These assembled off the coast of Milesia, while the land army collected
upon the shore; but the leaders, learning the strength of the Ionian
fleet, began to fear lest they might fail to defeat them, in which
case, not having the mastery at sea, they would be unable to reduce
Miletus, and might in consequence receive rough treatment at the hands
of Darius. So when they thought of all these things, they resolved
on the following course:- Calling together the Ionian tyrants, who
had fled to the Medes for refuge when Aristagoras deposed them from
their governments, and who were now in camp, having joined in the
expedition against Miletus, the Persians addressed them thus: "Men
of Ionia, now is the fit time to show your zeal for the house of the
king. Use your best efforts, every one of you, to detach your fellow-countrymen
from the general body. Hold forth to them the promise that, if they
submit, no harm shall happen to them on account of their rebellion;
their temples shall not be burnt, nor any of their private buildings;
neither shall they be treated with greater harshness than before the
outbreak. But if they refuse to yield, and determine to try the chance
of a battle, threaten them with the fate which shall assuredly overtake
them in that case. Tell them, when they are vanquished in fight, they
shall be enslaved; their boys shall be made eunuchs, and their maidens
transported to Bactra; while their country shall be delivered into
the hands of foreigners."
Thus spake the Persians. The Ionian tyrants sent accordingly by night
to their respective citizens, and reported the words of the Persians;
but the people were all staunch, and refused to betray their countrymen,
those of each state thinking that they alone had had made to them.
Now these events happened on the first appearance of the Persians
before Miletus.
Afterwards, while the Ionian fleet was still assembled at Lade, councils
were held, and speeches made by divers persons- among the rest by
Dionysius, the Phocaean captain, who thus expressed himself:- "Our
affairs hang on the razor's edge, men of Ionia, either to be free
or to be slaves; and slaves, too, who have shown themselves runaways.
Now then you have to choose whether you will endure hardships, and
so for the present lead a life of toil, but thereby gain ability to
overcome your enemies and establish your own freedom; or whether you
will persist in this slothfulness and disorder, in which case I see
no hope of your escaping the king's vengeance for your rebellion.
I beseech you, be persuaded by me, and trust yourselves to my guidance.
Then, if the gods only hold the balance fairly between us, I undertake
to say that our foes will either decline a battle, or, if they fight,
suffer complete discomfiture."
These words prevailed with the Ionians, and forthwith they committed
themselves to Dionysius; whereupon he proceeded every day to make
the ships move in column, and the rowers ply their oars, and exercise
themselves in breaking the line; while the marines were held under
arms, and the vessels were kept, till evening fell, upon their anchors,
so that the men had nothing but toil from morning even to night. Seven
days did the Ionians continue obedient, and do whatsoever he bade
them; but on the eighth day, worn out by the hardness of the work
and the heat of the sun, and quite unaccustomed to such fatigues,
they began to confer together, and to say one to another, "What god
have we offended to bring upon ourselves such a punishment as this?
Fools and distracted that we were, to put ourselves into the hands
of this Phocaean braggart, who does but furnish three ships to the
fleet! He, now that he has got us, plagues us in the most desperate
fashion; many of us, in consequence, have fallen sick already- many
more expect to follow. We had better suffer anything rather than these
hardships; even the slavery with which we are threatened, however
harsh, can be no worse than our present thraldom. Come, let us refuse
him obedience." So saying, they forthwith ceased to obey his orders,
and pitched their tents, as if they had been soldiers, upon the island,
where they reposed under the shade all day, and refused to go aboard
the ships and train themselves.
Now when the Samian captains perceived what was taking place, they
were more inclined than before to accept the terms which Aeaces, the
son of Syloson, had been authorised by the Persians to offer them,
on condition of their deserting from the confederacy. For they saw
that all was disorder among the Ionians, and they felt also that it
was hopeless to contend with the power of the king; since if they
defeated the fleet which had been sent against them, they knew that
another would come five times as great. So they took advantage of
the occasion which now offered, and as soon as ever they saw the Ionians
refuse to work, hastened gladly to provide for the safety of their
temples and their properties. This Aeaces, who made the overtures
to the Samians, was the son of Syloson, and grandson of the earlier
Aeaces. He had formerly been tyrant of Samos, but was ousted from
his government by Aristagoras the Milesian, at the same time with
the other tyrants of the Ionians.
The Phoenicians soon afterwards sailed to the attack; and the Ionians
likewise put themselves in line, and went out to meet them. When they
had now neared one another, and joined battle, which of the Ionians
fought like brave men and which like cowards, I cannot declare with
any certainty, for charges are brought on all sides; but the tale
goes that the Samians, according to the agreement which they had made
with Aeaces, hoisted sail, and quitting their post bore away for Samos,
except eleven ships, whose captains gave no heed to the orders of
the commanders, but remained and took part in the battle. The state
of Samos, in consideration of this action, granted to these men, as
an acknowledgment if their bravery, the honour of having their names,
and the names of their fathers, inscribed upon a pillar, which still
stands in the market-place. The Lesbians also, when they saw the Samians,
who were drawn up next them, begin to flee, themselves did the like;
and the example, once set, was followed by the greater number of the
Ionians.
Of those who remained and fought, none were so rudely handled as the
Chians, who displayed prodigies of valour, and disdained to play the
part of cowards. They furnished to the common fleet, as I mentioned
above, one hundred ships, having each of them forty armed citizens,
and those picked men, on board; and when they saw the greater portion
of the allies betraying the common cause, they for their part, scorning
to imitate the base conduct of these traitors, although they were
left almost alone and unsupported, a very few friends continuing to
stand by them, notwithstanding went on with the fight, and ofttimes
cut the line of the enemy, until at last, after they had taken very
many of their adversaries' ships, they ended by losing more than half
of their own. Hereupon, with the remainder of their vessels, the Chians
fled away to their own country.
As for such of their ships as were damaged and disabled, these, being
pursued by the enemy, made straight for Mycale, where the crews ran
them ashore, and abandoning them began their march along the continent.
Happening in their way upon the territory of Ephesus, they essayed
to cross it; but here a dire misfortune befell them. It was night,
and the Ephesian women chanced to be engaged in celebrating the Thesmophoria-
the previous calamity of the Chians had not been heard of- so when
the Ephesians saw their country invaded by an armed band, they made
no question of the new-comers being robbers who purposed to carry
off their women; and accordingly they marched out against them in
full force, and slew them all. Such were the misfortunes which befell
them of Chios.
Dionysius, the Phocaean, when he perceived that all was lost, having
first captured three ships from the enemy, himself took to flight.
He would not, however, return to Phocaea, which he well knew must
fall again, like the rest of Ionia, under the Persian yoke; but straightway,
as he was, he set sail for Phoenicia, and there sunk a number of merchantmen,
and gained a great booty; after which he directed his course to Sicily,
where he established himself as a corsair, and plundered the Carthaginians
and Tyrrhenians, but did no harm to the Greeks.
The Persians, when they had vanquished the Ionians in the sea-fight,
besieged Miletus both by land and sea, driving mines under the walls,
and making use of every known device, until at length they took both
the citadel and the town, six years from the time when the revolt
first broke out under Aristagoras. All the inhabitants of the city
they reduced to slavery, and thus the event tallied with the announcement
which had been made by the oracle.
For once upon a time, when the Argives had sent to Delphi to consult
the god about the safety of their own city, a prophecy was given them,
in which others besides themselves were interested; for while it bore
in part upon the fortunes of Argos, it touched in a by-clause the
fate of the men of Miletus. I shall set down the portion which concerned
the Argives when I come to that part of my History, mentioning at
present only the passage in which the absent Milesians were spoken
of. This passage was as follows:-
Then shalt thou, Miletus, so oft the contriver of evil,
Be, thyself, to many a least and an excellent booty:
Then shall thy matrons wash the feet of long-haired masters-
Others shall then possess our lov'd Didymian temple. Such a fate now
befell the Milesians; for the Persians, who wore their hair long,
after killing most of the men, made the women and children slaves;
and the sanctuary at Didyma, the oracle no less than the temple was
plundered and burnt; of the riches whereof I have made frequent mention
in other parts of my History.
Those of the Milesians whose lives were spared, being carried prisoners
to Susa, received no ill treatment at the hands of King Darius, but
were established by him in Ampe, a city on the shores of the Erythraean
sea, near the spot where the Tigris flows into it. Miletus itself,
and the plain about the city, were kept by the Persians for themselves,
while the hill-country was assigned to the Carians of Pedasus.
And now the Sybarites, who after the loss of their city occupied Laus
and Scidrus, failed duly to return the former kindness of the Milesians.
For these last, when Sybaris was taken by the Crotoniats, made a great
mourning, all of them, youths as well as men, shaving their heads;
since Miletus and Sybaris were, of all the cities whereof we have
any knowledge, the two most closely united to one another. The Athenians,
on the other hand, showed themselves beyond measure afflicted at the
fall of Miletus, in many ways expressing their sympathy, and especially
by their treatment of Phrynichus. For when this poet brought out upon
the stage his drama of the Capture of Miletus, the whole theatre burst
into tears; and the people sentenced him to pay a fine of a thousand
drachms, for recalling to them their own misfortunes. They likewise
made a law that no one should ever again exhibit that piece.
Thus was Miletus bereft of its inhabitants. In Samos the people of
the richer sort were much displeased with the doings of the captains,
and the dealings they had had the Medes; they therefore held a council,
very shortly after the sea-fight, and resolved that they would not
remain to become the slaves of Aeaces and the Persians, but before
the tyrant set foot in their country, would sail away and found a
colony in another land. Now it chanced that about this time the Zanclaeans
of Sicily had sent ambassadors to the Ionians, and invited them to
Kale-Acte where they wished an Ionian city to be founded. This place,
Kale-Acte (or the Fair Strand) as it is called, is in the country
of the Sicilians, and is situated in the part of Sicily which looks
towards Tyrrhenia. The offer thus made to all the Ionians was embraced
only by the Samians, and by such of the Milesians as had contrived
to effect their escape.
Hereupon this is what ensued. The Samians on their voyage reached
the country of the Epizephyrian Locrians, at a time when the Zanclaeans
and their king Scythas were engaged in the siege of a Sicilian town
which they hoped to take. Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium, who was on
ill terms with the Zanclaeans knowing how matters stood, made application
to the Samians, and persuaded them to give up the thought of Kale-Acte
the place to which they were bound, and to seize Zancle itself, which
was left without men. The Samians followed this counsel and possessed
themselves of the town; which the Zanclaeans no sooner heard than
they hurried to the rescue, calling to their aid Hippocrates, tyrant
of Gela, who was one of their allies. Hippocrates came with his army
to their assistance; but on his arrival he seized Scythas, the Zanclaean
king, who had just lost his city, and sent him away in chains, together
with his brother Pythogenes, to the town of Inycus; after which he
came to an understanding with the Samians, exchanged oaths with them,
and agreed to betray the people of Zancle. The reward of his treachery
was to be one-half of the goods and chattels, including slaves, which
the town contained, and all that he could find in the open country.
Upon this Hippocrates seized and bound the greater number of the Zanclaeans
as slaves; delivering, however, into the hands of the Samians three
hundred of the principal citizens, to be slaughtered; but the Samians
spared the lives of these persons.
Scythas, the king of the Zanclaeans, made his escape from Inycus,
and fled to Himera; whence he passed into Asia, and went up to the
court of Darius. Darius thought him the most upright of all the Greeks
to whom he afforded a refuge; for with the king's leave he paid a
visit to Sicily, and thence returned back to Persia, where he lived
in great comfort, and died by a natural death at an advanced age.
Thus did the Samians escape the yoke of the Medes, and possess themselves
without any trouble of Zancle, a most beautiful city. At Samos itself
the Phoenicians, after the fight which had Miletus for its prize was
over, re-established Aeaces, the son of Syloson, upon his throne.
This they did by the command of the Persians, who looked upon Aeaces
as one who had rendered them a high service and therefore deserved
well at their hands. They likewise spared the Samians, on account
of the desertion of their vessels, and did not burn either their city
or their temples, as they did those of the other rebels. Immediately
after the fall of Miletus the Persians recovered Caria, bringing some
of the cities over by force, while others submitted of their own accord.
Meanwhile tidings of what had befallen Miletus reached Histiaeus the
Milesian, who was still at Byzantium, employed in intercepting the
Ionian merchantmen as they issued from the Euxine. Histiaeus had no
sooner heard the news than he gave the Hellespont in charge to Bisaltes,
son of Apollophanes, a native of Abydos, and himself, at the head
of his Lesbians, set sail for Chios. One of the Chian garrisons which
opposed him he engaged at a place called "The Hollows," situated in
the Chian territory, and of these he slaughtered a vast number; afterwards,
by the help of his Lesbians, he reduced all the rest of the Chians,
who were weakened by their losses in the sea-fight, Polichne, a city
of Chios, serving him as head-quarters.
It mostly happens that there is some warning when great misfortunes
are about to befall a state or nation; and so it was in this instance,
for the Chians had previously had some strange tokens sent to them.
A choir of a hundred of their youths had been despatched to Delphi;
and of these only two had returned; the remaining ninety-eight having
been carried off by a pestilence. Likewise, about the same time, and
very shortly before the sea-fight, the roof of a school-house had
fallen in upon a number of their boys, who were at lessons; and out
of a hundred and twenty children there was but one left alive. Such
were the signs which God sent to warn them. It was very shortly afterwards
that the sea-fight happened, which brought the city down upon its
knees; and after the sea-fight came the attack of Histiaeus and his
Lesbians, to whom the Chians, weakened as they were, furnished an
easy conquest.
Histiaeus now led a numerous army, composed of Ionians and Aelians,
against Thasos, and had laid siege to the place when news arrived
that the Phoenicians were about to quit Miletus and attack the other
cities of Ionia. On hearing this, Histiaeus raised the siege of Thasos,
and hastened to Lesbos with all his forces. There his army was in
great straits for want of food; whereupon Histiaeus left Lesbos and
went across to the mainland, intending to cut the crops which were
growing in the Atarnean territory, and likewise in the plain of the
Caicus, which belonged to Mysia. Now it chanced that a certain Persian
named Harpagus was in these regions at the head of an army of no little
strength. He, when Histiaeus landed, marched out to meet him, and
engaging with his forces destroyed the greater number of them, and
took Histiaeus himself prisoner.
Histiaeus fell into the hands of the Persians in the following manner.
The Greeks and Persians engaged at Malena, in the region of Atarneus;
and the battle was for a long time stoutly contested, till at length
the cavalry came up, and, charging the Greeks, decided the conflict.
The Greeks fled; and Histiaeus, who thought that Darius would not
punish his fault with death, showed how he loved his life by the following
conduct. Overtaken in his flight by one of the Persians, who was about
to run him through, he cried aloud in the Persian tongue that he was
Histiaeus the Milesian.
Now, had he been taken straightway before King Darius, I verily believe
that he would have received no hurt, but the king would have freely
forgiven him. Artaphernes, however, satrap of Sardis, and his captor
Harpagus, on this very account- because they were afraid that, if
he escaped, he would be again received into high favour by the king-
put him to death as soon as he arrived at Sardis. His body they impaled
at that place, while they embalmed his head and sent it up to Susa
to the king. Darius, when he learnt what had taken place, found great
fault with the men engaged in this business for not bringing Histiaeus
alive into his presence, and commanded his servants to wash and dress
the head with all care, and then bury it, as the head of a man who
had been a great benefactor to himself and the Persians. Such was
the sequel of the history of Histiaeus.
The naval armament of the Persians wintered at Miletus, and in the
following year proceeded to attack the islands off the coast, Chios,
Lesbos, and Tenedos, which were reduced without difficulty. Whenever
they became masters of an island, the barbarians, in every single
instance, netted the inhabitants. Now the mode in which they practise
this netting is the following. Men join hands, so as to form a line
across from the north coast to the south, and then march through the
island from end to end and hunt out the inhabitants. In like manner
the Persians took also the Ionian towns upon the mainland, not however
netting the inhabitants, as it was not possible.
And now their generals made good all the threats wherewith they had
menaced the Ionians before the battle. For no sooner did they get
possession of the towns than they choose out all the best favoured
boys and made them eunuchs, while the most beautiful of the girls
they tore from their homes and sent as presents to the king, at the
same time burning the cities themselves, with their temples. Thus
were the Ionians for the third time reduced to slavery; once by the
Lydians, and a second, and now a third time, by the Persians.
The sea force, after quitting Ionia, proceeded to the Hellespont,
and took all the towns which lie on the left shore as one sails into
the straits. For the cities on the right bank had already been reduced
by the land force of the Persians. Now these are the places which
border the Hellespont on the European side; the Chersonese, which
contains a number of cities, Perinthus, the forts in Thrace, Selybria,
and Byzantium. The Byzantines at this time, and their opposite neighbours,
the Chalcedonians, instead of awaiting the coming of the Phoenicians,
quitted their country, and sailing into the Euxine, took up their
abode at the city of Mesembria. The Phoenicians, after burning all
the places above mentioned, proceeded to Proconnresus and Artaca,
which they likewise delivered to the flames; this done, they returned
to the Chersonese, being minded to reduce those cities which they
had not ravaged in their former cruise. Upon Cyzicus they made no
attack at all, as before their coming the inhabitants had made terms
with Oebares, the son of Megabazus, and satrap of Dascyleium, and
had submitted themselves to the king. In the Chersonese the Phoenicians
subdued all the cities, excepting Cardia.
Up to this time the cities of the Chersonese had been under the government
of Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and grandson of Stesagoras, to whom
they had descended from Miltiades, the son of Cypselus, who obtained
possession of them in the following manner. The Dolonci, a Thracian
tribe, to whom the Chersonese at that time belonged, being harassed
by a war in which they were engaged with the Apsinthians, sent their
princes to Delphi to consult the oracle about the matter. The reply
of the Pythoness bade them "take back with them as a colonist into
their country the man who should first offer them hospitality after
they quitted the temple." The Dolonci, following the Sacred Road,
passed through the regions of Phocis and Boeotia; after which, as
still no one invited them in, they turned aside, and travelled to
Athens.
Now Pisistratus was at this time sole lord of Athens; but Miltiades,
the son of Cypselus, was likewise a person of much distinction. He
belonged to a family which was wont to contend in the four-horse-chariot
races, and traced its descent to Aeacus and Egina, but which, from
the time of Philaeas, the son of Ajax, who was the first Athenian
citizen of the house, had been naturalised at Athens. It happened
that as the Dolonci passed his door Miltiades was sitting in his vestibule,
which caused him to remark them, dressed as they were in outlandish
garments, and armed moreover with lances. He therefore called to them,
and, on their approach, invited them in, offering them lodging and
entertainment. The strangers accepted his hospitality, and, after
the banquet was over, they laid before him in full the directions
of the oracle and besought him on their own part to yield obedience
to the god. Miltiades was persuaded ere they had done speaking; for
the government of Pisistratus was irksome to him, and he wanted to
be beyond the tyrant's reach. He therefore went straightway to Delphi,
and inquired of the oracle whether he should do as the Dolonci desired.
As the Pythoness backed their request, Miltiades, son of Cypselus
who had already won the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, left Athens,
taking with him as many of the Athenians as liked to join in the enterprise,
and sailed away with the Dolonci. On his arrival at the Chersonese,
he was made king by those who had invited him. After this his first
act was to build a wall across the neck of the Chersonese from the
city of Cardia to Pactya, to protect the country from the incursions
and ravages of the Apsinthians. The breadth of the isthmus at this
part is thirty-six furlongs, the whole length of the peninsula within
the isthmus being four hundred and twenty furlongs.
When he had finished carrying the wall across the isthmus, and had
thus secured the Chersonese against the Apsinthians, Miltiades proceeded
to engage in other wars, and first of all attacked the Lampsacenians;
but falling into an ambush which they had laid he had the misfortune
to be taken prisoner. Now it happened that Miltiades stood high in
the favour of Croesus, king of Lydia. When Croesus therefore heard
of his calamity, he sent and commanded the men of Lampsacus to give
Miltiades his freedom; "if they refused," he said, "he would destroy
them like a fir." Then the Lampsacenians were somewhile in doubt about
this speech of Croesus, and could not tell how to construe his threat
"that he would destroy them like a fir"; but at last one of their
elders divined the true sense, and told them that the fir is the only
tree which, when cut down, makes no fresh shoots, but forthwith dies
outright. So the Lampsacenians, being greatly afraid of Croesus, released
Miltiades, and let him go free.
Thus did Miltiades, by the help of Croesus, escape this danger. Some
time afterwards he died childless, leaving his kingdom and his riches
to Stesagoras, who was the son of Cimon, his half-brother. Ever since
his death the people of the Chersonese have offered him the customary
sacrifices of a founder; and they have further established in his
honour a gymnic contest and a chariot-race, in neither of which is
it lawful for any Lampsacenian to contend. Before the war with Lampsacus
was ended Stesagoras too died childless: he was sitting in the hall
of justice when he was struck upon the head with a hatchet by a man
who pretended to be a deserter, but was in good sooth an enemy, and
a bitter one.
Thus died Stesagoras; and upon his death the Pisistratidae fitted
out a trireme, and sent Miltiades, the son of Cimon, and brother of
the deceased, to the Chersonese, that he might undertake the management
of affairs in that quarter. They had already shown him much favour
at Athens, as if, forsooth, they had been no parties to the death
of his father Cimon- a matter whereof I will give an account in another
place. He upon his arrival remained shut up within the house, pretending
to do honour to the memory of his dead brother; whereupon the chief
people of the Chersonese gathered themselves together from all the
cities of the land, and came in a procession to the place where Miltiades
was, to condole with him upon his misfortune. Miltiades commanded
them to be seized and thrown into prison; after which he made himself
master of the Chersonese, maintained a body of five hundred mercenaries,
and married Hegesipyla, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus.
This Miltiades, the son of Cimon, had not been long in the country
when a calamity befell him yet more grievous than those in which he
was now involved: for three years earlier he had had to fly before
an incursion of the Scyths. These nomads, angered by the attack of
Darius, collected in a body and marched as far as the Chersonese.
Miltiades did not await their coming, but fled, and remained away
until the Scyths retired, when the Dolonci sent and fetched him back.
All this happened three years before the events which befell Miltiades
at the present time.
He now no sooner heard that the Phoenicians were attacking Tenedos
than he loaded five triremes with his goods and chattels, and set
sail for Athens. Cardia was the point from which he took his departure;
and as he sailed down the gulf of Melas, along the shore of the Chersonese,
he came suddenly upon the whole Phoenician fleet. However he himself
escaped, with four of his vessels, and got into Imbrus, one trireme
only falling into the hands of his pursuers. This vessel was under
the command of his eldest son Metiochus, whose mother was not the
daughter of the Thracian king Olorus, but a different woman. Metiochus
and his ship were taken; and when the Phoenicians found out that he
was a son of Miltiades they resolved to convey him to the king, expecting
thereby to rise high in the royal favour. For they remembered that
it was Miltiades who counselled the Ionians to hearken when the Scyths
prayed them to break up the bridge and return home. Darius, however,
when the Phoenicians brought Metiochus into his presence, was so far
from doing him any hurt, that he loaded him with benefits. He gave
him a house and estate, and also a Persian wife, by whom there were
children born to him who were accounted Persians. As for Miltiades
himself, from Imbrus he made his way in safety to Athens.
At this time the Persians did no more hurt to the Ionians; but on
the contrary, before the year was out, they carried into effect the
following measures, which were greatly to their advantage. Artaphernes,
satrap of Sardis, summoned deputies from all the Ionian cities, and
forced them to enter into agreements with one another, not to harass
each other by force of arms, but to settle their disputes by reference.
He likewise took the measurement of their whole country in parasangs-
such is the name which the Persians give to a distance of thirty furlongs-
and settled the tributes which the several cities were to pay, at
a rate that has continued unaltered from the time when Artaphernes
fixed it down to the present day. The rate was very nearly the same
as that which had been paid before the revolt. Such were the peaceful
dealings of the Persians with the Ionians.
The next spring Darius superseded all the other generals, and sent
down Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, to the coast, and with him a vast
body of men, some fit for sea, others for land service. Mardonius
was a youth at this time, and had only lately married Artazostra,
the king's daughter. When Mardonius, accompanied by this numerous
host, reached Cilicia, he took ship and proceeded along shore with
his fleet, while the land army marched under other leaders towards
the Hellespont. In the course of his voyage along the coast of Asia
he came to Ionia; and here I have a marvel to relate which will greatly
surprise those Greeks who cannot believe that Otanes advised the seven
conspirators to make Persia a commonwealth. Mardonius put down all
the despots throughout Ionia, and in lieu of them established democracies.
Having so done, he hastened to the Hellespont, and when a vast multitude
of ships had been brought together, and likewise a powerful land force,
he conveyed his troops across the strait by means of his vessels,
and proceeded through Europe against Eretria and Athens.
At least these towns served as a pretext for the expedition, the real
purpose of which was to subjugate as great a number as possible of
the Grecian cities; and this became plain when the Thasians, who did
not even lift a hand in their defence, were reduced by the sea force,
while the land army added the Macedonians to the former slaves of
the king. All the tribes on the hither side of Macedonia had been
reduced previously. From Thasos the fleet stood across to the mainland,
and sailed along shore to Acanthus, whence an attempt was made to
double Mount Athos. But here a violent north wind sprang up, against
which nothing could contend, and handled a large number of the ships
with much rudeness, shattering them and driving them aground upon
Athos. 'Tis said the number of the ships destroyed was little short
of three hundred; and the men who perished were more than twenty thousand.
For the sea about Athos abounds in monsters beyond all others; and
so a portion were seized and devoured by these animals, while others
were dashed violently against the rocks; some, who did not know how
to swim, were engulfed; and some died of the cold.
While thus it fared with the fleet, on land Mardonius and his army
were attacked in their camp during the night by the Brygi, a tribe
of Thracians; and here vast numbers of the Persians were slain, and
even Mardonius himself received a wound. The Brygi, nevertheless,
did not succeed in maintaining their own freedom: for Mardonius would
not leave the country till he had subdued them and made them subjects
of Persia. Still, though he brought them under the yoke, the blow
which his land force had received at their hands, and the great damage
done to his fleet off Athos, induced him to set out upon his retreat;
and so this armament, having failed disgracefully, returned to Asia.
The year after these events, Darius received information from certain
neighbours of the Thasians that those islanders were making preparations
for revolt; he therefore sent a herald, and bade them dismantle their
walls, and bring all their ships to Abdera. The Thasians, at the time
when Histiaeus the Milesian made his attack upon them, had resolved
that, as their income was very great, they would apply their wealth
to building ships of war, and surrounding their city with another
and a stronger wall. Their revenue was derived partly from their possessions
upon the mainland, partly from the mines which they owned. They were
masters of the gold mines at Scapte-Hyle, the yearly produce of which
amounted in all to eighty talents. Their mines in Thasos yielded less,
but still were so far prolific that, besides being entirely free from
land-tax, they had a surplus income, derived from the two sources
of their territory on the main and their mines, in common years of
two hundred, and in the best years of three hundred talents.
I myself have seen the mines in question: by far the most curious
of them are those which the Phoenicians discovered at the time when
they went with Thasus and colonised the island, which afterwards took
its name from him. These Phoenician workings are in Thasos itself,
between Coenyra and a place called Aenyra, over against Samothrace:
a huge mountain has been turned upside down in the search for ores.
Such then was the source of their wealth. On this occasion no sooner
did the Great King issue his commands than straightway the Thasians
dismantled their wall, and took their whole fleet to Abdera.
After this Darius resolved to prove the Greeks, and try the bent of
their minds, whether they were inclined to resist him in arms or prepared
to make their submission. He therefore sent out heralds in divers
directions round about Greece, with orders to demand everywhere earth
and water for the king. At the same time he sent other heralds to
the various seaport towns which paid him tribute, and required them
to provide a number of ships of war and horse-transports.
These towns accordingly began their preparations; and the heralds
who had been sent into Greece obtained what the king had bid them
ask from a large number of the states upon the mainland, and likewise
from all the islanders whom they visited. Among these last were included
the Eginetans, who, equally with the rest, consented to give earth
and water to the Persian king.
When the Athenians heard what the Eginetans had done, believing that
it was from enmity to themselves that they had given consent, and
that the Eginetans intended to join the Persian in his attack upon
Athens, they straightway took the matter in hand. In good truth it
greatly rejoiced them to have so fair a pretext; and accordingly they
sent frequent embassies to Sparta, and made it a charge against the
Eginetans that their conduct in this matter proved them to be traitors
to Greece.
Hereupon Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, who was then king of
the Spartans, went in person to Egina, intending to seize those whose
guilt was the greatest. As soon however as he tried to arrest them,
a number of the Eginetins made resistance; a certain Crius, son of
Polycritus, being the foremost in violence. This person told him "he
should not carry off a single Eginetan without it costing him dear-
the Athenians had bribed him to make this attack, for which he had
no warrant from his own government- otherwise both the kings would
have come together to make the seizure." This he said in consequence
of instructions which he had received from Demaratus. Hereupon Cleomenes,
finding that he must quit Egina, asked Crius his name; and when Crius
told him, "Get thy horns tipped with brass with all speed, O Crius!"
he said, "for thou wilt have to struggle with a great danger."
Meanwhile Demaratus, son of Ariston, was bringing charges against
Cleomenes at Sparta. He too, like Cleomenes, was king of the Spartans,
but he belonged to the lower house- not indeed that his house was
of any lower origin than the other, for both houses are of one blood-
but the house of Eurysthenes is the more honoured of the two, inasmuch
as it is the elder branch.
The Lacedaemonians declare, contradicting therein all the poets, that
it was king Aristodemus himself, son of Aristomachus, grandson of
Cleodaeus, and great-grandson of Hyllus, who conducted them to the
land which they now possess, and not the sons of Aristodemus. The
wife of Aristodemus, whose name (they say) was Argeia, and who was
daughter of Autesion, son of Tisamenus, grandson of Thersander, and
great-grandson of Polynices, within a little while after their coming
into the country, gave birth to twins. Aristodemus just lived to see
his children, but died soon afterwards of a disease. The Lacedaemonians
of that day determined, according to custom, to take for their king
the elder of the two children; but they were so alike, and so exactly
of one size, that they could not possibly tell which of the two to
choose: so when they found themselves unable to make a choice, or
haply even earlier, they went to the mother and asked her to tell
them which was the elder, whereupon she declared that "she herself
did not know the children apart"; although in good truth she knew
them very well, and only feigned ignorance in order that, if it were
possible, both of them might be made kings of Sparta. The Lacedaemonians
were now in a great strait; so they sent to Delphi and inquired of
the oracle how they should deal with the matter. The Pythoness made
answer, "Let both be taken to be kings; but let the elder have the
greater honour." So the Lacedaemonians were in as great a strait as
before, and could not conceive how they were to discover which was
the first-born, till at length a certain Messenian, by name Panites,
suggested to them to watch and see which of the two the mother washed
and fed first; if they found she always gave one the preference, that
fact would tell them all they wanted to know; if, on the contrary,
she herself varied, and sometimes took the one first, sometimes the
other, it would be plain that she knew as little as they; in which
case they must try some other plan. The Lacedaemonians did according
to the advice of the Messenian, and, without letting her know why,
kept a watch upon the mother; by which means they discovered that,
whenever she either washed or fed her children, she always gave the
same child the preference. So they took the boy whom the mother honoured
the most, and regarding him as the first-born, brought him up in the
palace; and the name which they gave to the elder boy was Eurysthenes,
while his brother they called Procles. When the brothers grew up,
there was always, so long as they lived, enmity between them; and
the houses sprung from their loins have continued the feud to this
day.
Thus much is related by the Lacedaemonians, but not by any of the
other Greeks; in what follows I give the tradition of the Greeks generally.
The kings of the Dorians (they say)- counting up to Perseus, son of
Danae, and so omitting the god- are rightly given in the common Greek
lists, and rightly considered to have been Greeks themselves; for
even at this early time they ranked among that people. I say "up to
Perseus," and not further, because Perseus has no mortal father by
whose name he is called, as Hercules has in Amphitryon; whereby it
appears that I have reason on my side, and am right in saying, "up
to Perseus." If we follow the line of Danad, daughter of Acrisius,
and trace her progenitors, we shall find that the chiefs of the Dorians
are really genuine Egyptians. In the genealogies here given I have
followed the common Greek accounts.
According to the Persian story, Perseus was an Assyrian who became
a Greek; his ancestors, therefore, according to them, were not Greeks.
They do not admit that the forefathers of Acrisius were in any way
related to Perseus, but say they were Egyptians, as the Greeks likewise
testify.
Enough however of this subject. How it came to pass that Egyptians
obtained the kingdoms of the Dorians, and what they did to raise themselves
to such a position, these are questions concerning which, as they
have been treated by others, I shall say nothing. I proceed to speak
of points on which no other writer has touched.
The prerogatives which the Spartans have allowed their kings are the
following. In the first place, two priesthoods, those (namely) of
Lacedaemonian and of Celestial Jupiter; also the right of making war
on what country soever they please, without hindrance from any of
the other Spartans, under pain of outlawry; on service the privilege
of marching first in the advance and last in the retreat, and of having
a hundred picked men for their body guard while with the army; likewise
the liberty of sacrificing as many cattle in their expeditions as
it seems them good, and the right of having the skins and the chines
of the slaughtered animals for their own use.
Such are their privileges in war; in peace their rights are as follows.
When a citizen makes a public sacrifice the kings are given the first
seats at the banquet; they are served before any of the other guests,
and have a double portion of everything; they take the lead in the
libations; and the hides of the sacrificed beasts belong to them.
Every month, on the first day, and again on the seventh of the first
decade, each king receives a beast without blemish at the public cost,
which he offers up to Apollo; likewise a medimnus of meal, and of
wine a Laconian quart. In the contests of the Games they have always
the seat of honour; they appoint the citizens who have to entertain
foreigners; they also nominate, each of them, two of the Pythians,
officers whose business it is to consult the oracle at Delphi, who
eat with the kings, and, like them, live at the public charge. If
the kings do not come to the public supper, each of them must have
two choenixes of meal and a cotyle of wine sent home to him at his
house; if they come, they are given a double quantity of each, and
the same when any private man invites them to his table. They have
the custody of all the oracles which are pronounced; but the Pythians
must likewise have knowledge of them. They have the whole decision
of certain causes, which are these, and these only:- When a maiden
is left the heiress of her father's estate, and has not been betrothed
by him to any one, they decide who is to marry her; in all matters
concerning the public highways they judge; and if a person wants to
adopt a child, he must do it before the kings. They likewise have
the right of sitting in council with the eight-and-twenty senators;
and if they are not present, then the senators nearest of kin to them
have their privileges, and give two votes as the royal proxies, besides
a third vote, which is their own.
Such are the honours which the Spartan people have allowed their kings
during their lifetime; after they are dead other honours await them.
Horsemen carry the news of their death through all Laconia, while
in the city the women go hither and thither drumming upon a kettle.
At this signal, in every house two free persons, a man and a woman,
must put on mourning, or else be subject to a heavy fine. The Lacedaemonians
have likewise a custom at the demise of their kings which is common
to them with the barbarians of Asia- indeed with the greater number
of the barbarians everywhere- namely, that when one of their kings
dies, not only the Spartans, but a certain number of the country people
from every part of Laconia are forced, whether they will or no, to
attend the funeral. So these persons and the helots, and likewise
the Spartans themselves, flock together to the number of several thousands,
men and women intermingled; and all of them smite their foreheads
violently, and weep and wall without stint, saying always that their
last king was the best. If a king dies in battle, then they make a
statue of him, and placing it upon a couch right bravely decked, so
carry it to the grave. After the burial, by the space of ten days
there is no assembly, nor do they elect magistrates, but continue
mourning the whole time.
They hold with the Persians also in another custom. When a king dies,
and another comes to the throne, the newly-made monarch forgives all
the Spartans the debts which they owe either to the king or to the
public treasury. And in like manner among the Persians each king when
he begins to reign remits the tribute due from the provinces.
In one respect the Lacedaemonians resemble the Egyptians. Their heralds
and flute-players, and likewise their cooks, take their trades by
succession from their fathers. A flute-player must be the son of a
flute-player, a cook of a cook, a herald of a herald; and other people
cannot take advantage of the loudness of their voice to come into
the profession and shut out the heralds' sons; but each follows his
father's business. Such are the customs of the Lacedaemonians.
At the time of which we are speaking, while Cleomenes in Egina was
labouring for the general good of Greece, Demaratus at Sparta continued
to bring charges against him, moved not so much by love of the Eginetans
as by jealousy and hatred of his colleague. Cleomenes therefore was
no sooner returned from Egina than he considered with himself how
he might deprive Demaratus of his kingly office; and here the following
circumstance furnished a ground for him to proceed upon. Ariston,
king of Sparta, had been married to two wives, but neither of them
had borne him any children; as however he still thought it was possible
he might have offspring, he resolved to wed a third; and this was
how the wedding was brought about. He had a certain friend, a Spartan,
with whom he was more intimate than with any other citizen. This friend
was married to a wife whose beauty far surpassed that of all the other
women in Sparta; and what was still more strange, she had once been
as ugly as she now was beautiful. For her nurse, seeing how ill-favoured
she was, and how sadly her parents, who were wealthy people, took
her bad looks to heart, bethought herself of a plan, which was to
carry the child every day to the temple of Helen at Therapna, which
stands above the Phoebeum, and there to place her before the image,
and beseech the goddess to take away the child's ugliness. One day,
as she left the temple, a woman appeared to her, and begged to know
what it was she held in her arms. The nurse told her it was a child,
on which she asked to see it; but the nurse refused; the parents,
she said, had forbidden her to show the child to any one. However
the woman would not take a denial; and the nurse, seeing how highly
she prized a look, at last let her see the child. Then the woman gently
stroked its head, and said, "One day this child shall be the fairest
dame in Sparta." And her looks began to change from that very day.
When she was of marriageable age, Agetus, son of Alcides, the same
whom I have mentioned above as the friend of Ariston, made her his
wife.
Now it chanced that Ariston fell in love with this person; and his
love so preyed upon his mind that at last he devised as follows. He
went to his friend, the lady's husband, and proposed to him that they
should exchange gifts, each taking that which pleased him best out
of all the possessions of the other. His friend, who felt no alarm
about his wife, since Ariston was also married, consented readily;
and so the matter was confirmed between them by an oath. Then Ariston
gave Agetus the present, whatever it was, of which he had made choice,
and when it came to his turn to name the present which he was to receive
in exchange, required to be allowed to carry home with him Agetus's
wife. But the other demurred, and said, "except his wife, he might
have anything else": however, as he could not resist the oath which
he had sworn, or the trickery which had been practised on him, at
last he suffered Ariston to carry her away to his house.
Ariston hereupon put away his second wife and took for his third this
woman; and she, in less than the due time- when she had not yet reached
her full term of ten months- gave birth to a child, the Demaratus
of whom we have spoken. Then one of his servants came and told him
the news, as he sat in council with the Ephors; whereat, remembering
when it was that the woman became his wife, he counted the months
upon his fingers, and having so done, cried out with an oath, "The
boy cannot be mine." This was said in the hearing of the Ephors; but
they made no account of it at the time. The boy grew up; and Ariston
repented of what he had said; for he became altogether convinced that
Demaratus was truly his son. The reason why he named him Demaratus
was the following. Some time before these events the whole Spartan
people, looking upon Ariston as a man of mark beyond all the kings
that had reigned at Sparta before him, had offered up a prayer that
he might have a son. On this account, therefore, the name Demaratus
was given.
In course of time Ariston died; and Demaratus received the kingdom:
but it was fated, as it seems, that these words, when bruited abroad,
should strip him of his sovereignty. This was brought about by means
of Cleomenes, whom he had twice sorely vexed, once when he led the
army home from Eleusis, and a second time when Cleomenes was gone
across to Egina against such as had espoused the side of the Medes.
Cleomenes now, being resolved to have his revenge upon Demaratus,
went to Leotychides, the son of Menares, and grandson of Agis, who
was of the same family as Demaratus, and made agreement with him to
this tenor following. Cleomenes was to lend his aid to make Leotychides
king in the room of Demaratus; and then Leotychides was to take part
with Cleomenes against the Eginetans. Now Leotychides hated Demaratus
chiefly on account of Percalus, the daughter of Chilon, son of Demarmenus:
this lady had been betrothed to Leotychides; but Demaratus laid a
plot, and robbed him of his bride, forestalling him in carrying her
off, and marrying her. Such was the origin of the enmity. At the time
of which we speak, Leotychides was prevailed upon by the earnest desire
of Cleomenes to come forward against Demaratus and make oath "that
Demaratus was not rightful king of Sparta, since he was not the true
son of Ariston." After he had thus sworn, Leotychides sued Demaratus,
and brought up against him the phrase which Ariston had let drop when,
on the coming of his servant to announce to him the birth of his son,
he counted the months, and cried out with an oath that the child was
not his. It was on this speech of Ariston's that Leotychides relied
to prove that Demaratus was not his son, and therefore not rightful
king of Sparta; and he produced as witnesses the Ephors who were sitting
with Ariston at the time and heard what he said.
At last, as there came to be much strife concerning this matter, the
Spartans made a decree that the Delphic oracle should be asked to
say whether Demaratus were Ariston's son or no. Cleomenes set them
upon this plan; and no sooner was the decree passed than he made a
friend of Cobon, the son of Aristophantus, a man of the greatest weight
among the Delphians; and this Cobon prevailed upon Perialla, the prophetess,
to give the answer which Cleomenes wished. Accordingly, when the sacred
messengers came and put their question, the Pythoness returned for
answer "that Demaratus was not Ariston's son." Some time afterwards
all this became known; and Cobon was forced to fly from Delphi; while
Perialla the prophetess was deprived of her office.
Such were the means whereby the deposition of Demaratus was brought
about; but his flying from Sparta to the Medes was by reason of an
affront which was put upon him. On losing his kingdom he had been
made a magistrate; and in that office soon afterwards, when the feast
of the Gymnopaediae came around, he took his station among the lookers-on;
whereupon Leotychides, who was now king in his room, sent a servant
to him and asked him, by way of insult and mockery, "how it felt to
be a magistrate after one had been a king?" Demaratus, who was hurt
at the question, made answer- "Tell him I have tried them both, but
he has not. Howbeit this speech will be the cause to Sparta of infinite
blessings or else of infinite woes." Having thus spoken he wrapped
his head in his robe, and, leaving the theatre, went home to his own
house, where he prepared an ox for sacrifice, and offered it to Jupiter,
after which he called for his mother.
When she appeared, he took of the entrails, and placing them in her
hand, besought her in these words following:-
"Dear mother, I beseech you, by all the gods, and chiefly by our own
hearth-god Jupiter, tell me the very truth, who was really my father.
For Leotychides, in the suit which we had together, declared that
when thou becamest Ariston's wife thou didst already bear in thy womb
a child by thy former husband, and others repeat a yet more disgraceful
tale, that our groom found favour in thine eyes, and that I am his
son. I entreat thee therefore by the gods to tell me the truth. For
if thou hast gone astray, thou hast done no more than many a woman;
and the Spartans remark it as strange, if I am Ariston's son, that
he had no children by his other wives."
Thus spake Demaratus; and his mother replied as follows: "Dear son,
since thou entreatest so earnestly for the truth, it shall indeed
be fully told to thee. When Ariston brought me to his house, on the
third night after my coming, there appeared to me one like to Ariston,
who, after staying with me a while, rose, and taking the garlands
from his own brows placed them upon my head, and so went away. Presently
after Ariston entered, and when he saw the garlands which I still
wore, asked me who gave them to me. I said, 'twas he; but this he
stoutly denied; whereupon I solemnly swore that it was none other,
and told him he did not do well to dissemble when he had so lately
risen from my side and left the garlands with me. Then Ariston, when
he heard my oath, understood that there was something beyond nature
in what had taken place. And indeed it appeared that the garlands
had come from the hero-temple which stands by our court gates- the
temple of him they call Astrabacus- and the soothsayers, moreover,
declared that the apparition was that very person. And now, my son,
I have told thee all thou wouldest fain know. Either thou art the
son of that hero- either thou mayest call Astrabacus sire; or else
Ariston was thy father. As for that matter which they who hate thee
urge the most, the words of Ariston, who, when the messenger told
him of thy birth, declared before many witnesses that 'thou wert not
his son, forasmuch as the ten months were not fully out,' it was a
random speech, uttered from mere ignorance. The truth is, children
are born not only at ten months, but at nine, and even at seven. Thou
wert thyself, my son, a seven months' child. Ariston acknowledged,
no long time afterwards, that his speech sprang from thoughtlessness.
Hearken not then to other tales concerning thy birth, my son: for
be assured thou hast the whole truth. As for grooms, pray Heaven Leotychides
and all who speak as he does may suffer wrong from them!" Such was
the mother's answer.
Demaratus, having learnt all that he wished to know, took with him
provision for the journey, and went into Elis, pretending that he
purposed to proceed to Delphi, and there consult the oracle. The Lacedaemonians,
however, suspecting that he meant to fly his country, sent men in
pursuit of him; but Demaratus hastened, and leaving Elis before they
arrived, sailed across to Zacynthus. The Lacedaemonians followed,
and sought to lay hands upon him, and to separate him from his retinue;
but the Zacynthians would not give him up to them: so he escaping,
made his way afterwards by sea to Asia, and presented himself before
King Darius, who received him generously, and gave him both lands
and cities. Such was the chance which drove Demaratus to Asia, a man
distinguished among the Lacedaemonians for many noble deeds and wise
counsels, and who alone of all the Spartan kings brought honour to
his country by winning at Olympia the prize in the four-horse chariot-race.
After Demaratus was deposed, Leotychides, the son of Menares, received
the kingdom. He had a son, Zeuxidamus, called Cyniscus by many of
the Spartans. This Zeuxidamus did not reign at Sparta, but died before
his father, leaving a son, Archidamus. Leotychides, when Zeuxidamus
was taken from him, married a second wife, named Eurydame, the sister
of Menius and daughter of Diactorides. By her he had no male offspring,
but only a daughter called Lampito, whom he gave in marriage to Archidamus,
Zeuxidamus' son.
Even Leotychides, however, did not spend his old age in Sparta, but
suffered a punishment whereby Demaratus was fully avenged. He commanded
the Lacedaemonians when they made war against Thessaly, and might
have conquered the whole of it, but was bribed by a large sum of money.
It chanced that he was caught in the fact, being found sitting in
his tent on a gauntlet, quite full of silver. Upon this he was brought
to trial and banished from Sparta; his house was razed to the ground;
and he himself fled to Tegea, where he ended his days. But these events
took place long afterwards.
At the time of which we are speaking, Cleomenes, having carried his
proceedings in the matter of Demaratus to a prosperous issue, forthwith
took Leotychides with him, and crossed over to attack the Eginetans;
for his anger was hot against them on account of the affront which
they had formerly put upon him. Hereupon the Eginetans, seeing that
both the kings were come against them, thought it best to make no
further resistance. So the two kings picked out from all Egina the
ten men who for wealth and birth stood the highest, among whom were
Crius, son of Polycritus, and Casambus, son of Aristocrates, who wielded
the chief power; and these men they carried with them to Attica, and
there deposited them in the hands of the Athenians, the great enemies
of the Eginetans.
Afterwards, when it came to be known what evil arts had been used
against Demaratus, Cleomenes was seized with fear of his own countrymen,
and fled into Thessaly. From thence he passed into Arcadia, where
he began to stir up troubles, and endeavoured to unite the Arcadians
against Sparta. He bound them by various oaths to follow him whithersoever
he should lead, and was even desirous of taking their chief leaders
with him to the city of Nonacris, that he might swear them to his
cause by the waters of the Styx. For the waters of Styx, as the Arcadians
say, are in that city, and this is the appearance they present: you
see a little water, dripping from a rock into a basin, which is fenced
round by a low wall. Nonacris, where this fountain is to be seen,
is a city of Arcadia near Pheneus.
When the Lacedaemonians heard how Cleomenes was engaged, they were
afraid, and agreed with him that he should come back to Sparta and
be king as before. So Cleomenes came back; but had no sooner returned
than he, who had never been altogether of sound mind, was smitten
with downright madness. This he showed by striking every Spartan he
met upon the face with his sceptre. On his behaving thus, and showing
that he was gone quite out of his mind, his kindred imprisoned him,
and even put his feet in the stocks. While so bound, finding himself
left alone with a single keeper, he asked the man for a knife. The
keeper at first refused, whereupon Cleomenes began to threaten him,
until at last he was afraid, being only a helot, and gave him what
he required. Cleomenes had no sooner got the steel than, beginning
at his legs, he horribly disfigured himself, cutting gashes in his
flesh, along his legs, thighs, hips, and loins, until at last he reached
his belly, which he likewise began to gash, whereupon in a little
time he died. The Greeks generally think that this fate came upon
him because he induced the Pythoness to pronounce against Demaratus;
the Athenians differ from all others in saying that it was because
he cut down the sacred grove of the goddesses when he made his invasion
by Eleusis; while the Argives ascribe it to his having taken from
their refuge and cut to pieces certain argives who had fled from battle
into a precinct sacred to Argus, where Cleomenes slew them, burning
likewise at the same time, through irreverence, the grove itself.
For once, when Cleomenes had sent to Delphi to consult the oracle,
it was prophesied to him that he should take Argos; upon which he
went out at the head of the Spartans, and led them to the river Erasinus.
This stream is reported to flow from the Stymphalian lake, the waters
of which empty themselves into a pitch-dark chasm, and then (as they
say) reappear in Argos, where the Argives call them the Erasinus.
Cleomenes, having arrived upon the banks of this river, proceeded
to offer sacrifice to it, but, in spite of all that he could do, the
victims were not favourable to his crossing. So he said that he admired
the god for refusing to betray his countrymen, but still the Argives
should not escape him for all that. He then withdrew his troops, and
led them down to Thyrea, where he sacrificed a bull to the sea, and
conveyed his men on shipboard to Nauplia in the Tirynthian territory.
The Argives, when they heard of this, marched down to the sea to defend
their country; and arriving in the neighbourhood of Tiryns, at the
place which bears the name of Sepeia, they pitched their camp opposite
to the Lacedaemonians, leaving no great space between the hosts. And
now their fear was not so much lest they should be worsted in open
fight as lest some trick should be practised on them; for such was
the danger which the oracle given to them in common with the Milesians
seemed to intimate. The oracle ran as follows:-
Time shall be when the female shall conquer the male, and shall chase
him
Far away- gaining so great praise and honour in Argos;
Then full many an Argive woman her cheeks shall mangle
Hence, in the times to come 'twill be said by the men who are unborn,
"Tamed by the spear expired the coiled terrible serpent." At the coincidence
of all these things the Argives were greatly cast down; and so they
resolved that they would follow the signals of the enemy's herald.
Having made this resolve, they proceeded to act as follows: whenever
the herald of the Lacedaemonians gave an order to the soldiers of
his own army, the Argives did the like on their side.
Now when Cleomenes heard that the Argives were acting thus, he commanded
his troops that, so soon as the herald gave the word for the soldiers
to go to dinner, they should instantly seize their arms and charge
the host of the enemy. Which the Lacedaemonians did accordingly, and
fell upon the Argives just as, following the signal, they had begun
their repast; whereby it came to pass that vast numbers of the Argives
were slain, while the rest, who were more than they which died in
the fight, were driven to take refuge in the grove of Argus hard by,
where they were surrounded, and watch kept upon them.
When things were at this pass Cleomenes acted as follows: Having learnt
the names of the Argives who were shut up in the sacred precinct from
certain deserters who had come over to him, he sent a herald to summon
them one by one, on pretence of having received their ransoms. Now
the ransom of prisoners among the Peloponnesians is fixed at two minae
the man. So Cleomenes had these persons called forth severally, to
the number of fifty, or thereabouts, and massacred them. All this
while they who remained in the enclosure knew nothing of what was
happening; for the grove was so thick that the people inside were
unable to see what was taking place without. But at last one of their
number climbed up into a tree and spied the treachery; after which
none of those who were summoned would go forth.
Then Cleomenes ordered all the helots to bring brushwood, and heap
it around the grove; which was done accordingly; and Cleomenes set
the grove on fire. As the flames spread he asked a deserter "Who was
the god of the grove?" whereto the other made answer, "Argus." So
he, when he heard that, uttered a loud groan, and said:-
"Greatly hast thou deceived me, Apollo, god of prophecy, in saying
that I should take Argos. I fear me thy oracle has now got its accomplishment."
Cleomenes now sent home the greater part of his army, while with a
thousand of his best troops he proceeded to the temple of Juno, to
offer sacrifice. When however he would have slain the victim on the
altar himself, the priest forbade him, as it was not lawful (he said)
for a foreigner to sacrifice in that temple. At this Cleomenes ordered
his helots to drag the priest from the altar and scourge him, while
he performed the sacrifice himself, after which he went back to Sparta.
Thereupon his enemies brought him up before the Ephors, and made it
a charge against him that he had allowed himself to be bribed, and
on that account had not taken Argos when he might have captured it
easily. To this he answered- whether truly or falsely I cannot say
with certainty- but at any rate his answer to the charge was that
"so soon as he discovered the sacred precinct which he had taken to
belong to Argos, he directly imagined that the oracle had received
its accomplishment; he therefore thought it not good to attempt the
town, at the least until he had inquired by sacrifice, and ascertained
if the god meant to grant him the place, or was determined to oppose
his taking it. So he offered in the temple of Juno, and when the omens
were propitious, immediately there flashed forth a flame of fire from
the breast of the image; whereby he knew of a surety that he was not
to take Argos. For if the flash had come from the head, he would have
gained the town, citadel and all; but as it shone from the breast,
he had done so much as the god intended." And his words seemed to
the Spartans so true and reasonable, that he came clear off from his
adversaries.
Argos however was left so bare of men that the slaves managed the
state, filled the offices, and administered everything until the sons
of those who were slain by Cleomenes grew up. Then these latter cast
out the slaves, and got the city back under their own rule; while
the slaves who had been driven out fought a battle and won Tiryns.
After this for a time there was peace between the two; but a certain
man, a soothsayer, named Cleander, who was by race a Phigalean from
Arcadia, joined himself to the slaves, and stirred them up to make
a fresh attack upon their lords. Then were they at war with one another
by the space of many years; but at length the Argives with much trouble
gained the upper hand.
The Argives say that Cleomenes lost his senses, and died so miserably,
on account of these doings. But his own countrymen declare that his
madness proceeded not from any supernatural cause whatever, but only
from the habit of drinking wine unmixed with water, which he learnt
of the Scyths. These nomads, from the time that Darius made his inroad
into their country, had always had a wish for revenge. They therefore
sent ambassadors to Sparta to conclude a league, proposing to endeavour
themselves to enter Media by the Phasis, while the Spartans should
march inland from Ephesus, and then the two armies should join together
in one. When the Scyths came to Sparta on this errand Cleomenes was
with them continually; and growing somewhat too familiar, learnt of
them to drink his wine without water, a practice which is thought
by the Spartans to have caused his madness. From this distance of
time the Spartans, according to their own account, have been accustomed,
when they want to drink purer wine than common, to give the order
to fill "Scythian fashion." The Spartans then speak thus concerning
Cleomenes; but for my own part I think his death was a judgment on
him for wronging Demaratus.
No sooner did the news of Cleomenes' death reach Egina than straightway
the Eginetans sent ambassadors to Sparta to complain of the conduct
of Leotychides in respect of their hostages, who were still kept at
Athens. So they of Lacedaemon assembled a court of justice and gave
sentence upon Leotychides, that whereas he had grossly affronted the
people of Egina, he should be given up to the ambassadors, to be led
away in place of the men whom the Athenians had in their keeping.
Then the ambassadors were about to lead him away; but Theasides, the
son of Leoprepes, who was a man greatly esteemed in Sparta, interfered,
and said to them:-
"What are ye minded to do, ye men of Egina? To lead away captive the
king of the Spartans, whom his countrymen have given into your hands?
Though now in their anger they have passed this sentence, yet belike
the time will come when they will punish you, if you act thus, by
bringing utter destruction upon your country."
The Eginetans, when they heard this, changed their plan, and, instead
of leading Leotychides away captive, agreed with him that he should
come with them to Athens, and give them back their men.
When however he reached that city, and demanded the restoration of
his pledge, the Athenians, being unwilling to comply, proceeded to
make excuses, saying "that two kings had come and left the men with
them, and they did not think it right to give them back to the one
without the other." So when the Athenians refused plainly to restore
the men, Leotychides said to them:-
"Men of Athens, act which way you choose- give me up the hostages,
and be righteous, or keep them, and be the contrary. I wish, however,
to tell you what happened once in Sparta about a pledge. The story
goes among us that three generations back there lived in Lacedaemon
one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes, a man who in every other respect
was on a par with the first in the kingdom, and whose character for
justice was such as to place him above all the other Spartans. Now
to this man at the appointed season the following events happened.
A certain Milesian came to Sparta and, having desired to speak with
him, said- 'I am of Miletus, and I have come hither, Glaucus, in the
hope of profiting by thy honesty. For when I heard much talk thereof
in Ionia and through all the rest of Greece, and when I observed that
whereas Ionia is always insecure, the Peloponnese stands firm and
unshaken, and noted likewise how wealth is continually changing hands
in our country, I took counsel with myself and resolved to turn one-half
of my substance into money, and place it in thy hands, since I am
well assured that it will be safe in thy keeping. Here then is the
silver- take it- and take likewise these tallies, and be careful of
them; remember thou art to give back the money to the person who shall
bring you their fellows.' Such were the words of the Milesian stranger;
and Glaucus took the deposit on the terms expressed to him. Many years
had gone by when the sons of the man by whom the money was left came
to Sparta, and had an interview with Glaucus, whereat they produced
the tallies, and asked to have the money returned to them. But Glaucus
sought to refuse, and answered them: 'I have no recollection of the
matter; nor can I bring to mind any of those particulars whereof ye
speak. When I remember, I will certainly do what is just. If I had
the money, you have a right to receive it back; but if it was never
given to me, I shall put the Greek law in force against you. For the
present I give you no answer; but four months hence I will settle
the business.' So the Milesians went away sorrowful, considering that
their money was utterly lost to them. As for Glaucus, he made a journey
to Delphi, and there consulted the oracle. To his question if he should
swear, and so make prize of the money, the Pythoness returned for
answer these lines following:-
Best for the present it were, O Glaucus, to do as thou wishest,
Swearing an oath to prevail, and so to make prize of the money.
Swear then- death is the lot e'en of those who never swear falsely.
Yet hath the Oath-God a son who is nameless, footless, and handless;
Mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance, and whelms in destruction,
All who belong to the race, or the house of the man who is perjured.
But oath- keeping men leave behind them a flourishing offspring. Glaucus
when he heard these words earnestly besought the god to pardon his
question; but the Pythoness replied that it was as bad to have tempted
the god as it would have been to have done the deed. Glaucus, however,
sent for the Milesian strangers, and gave them back their money. And
now I will tell you, Athenians, what my purpose has been in recounting
to you this history. Glaucus at the present time has not a single
descendant; nor is there any family known as his- root and branch
has he been removed from Sparta. It is a good thing, therefore, when
a pledge has been left with one, not even in thought to doubt about
restoring it."
Thus spake Leotychides; but, as he found that the Athenians would
not hearken to him, he left them and went his way.
The Eginetans had never been punished for the wrongs which, to pleasure
the Thebans, they had committed upon Athens. Now, however, conceiving
that they were themselves wronged, and had a fair ground of complaint
against the Athenians, they instantly prepared to revenge themselves.
As it chanced that the Athenian theoris, which was a vessel of five
banks of oars, lay at Sunium, the Eginetans contrived an ambush, and
made themselves masters of the holy vessel, on board of which were
a number of Athenians of the highest rank, whom they took and threw
into prison.
At this outrage the Athenians no longer delayed, but set to work to
scheme their worst against the Eginetans; and, as there was in Egina
at that time a man of mark, Nicodromus by name, the son of Cnoethus,
who was on ill terms with his countrymen because on a former occasion
they had driven him into banishment, they listened to overtures from
this man, who had heard how determined they were to do the Eginetans
a mischief, and agreed with him that on a certain day he should be
ready to betray the island into their hands, and they would come with
a body of troops to his assistance. And Nicodromus, some time after,
holding to the agreement, made himself master of what is called the
old town.
The Athenians, however, did not come to the day; for their own fleet
was not of force sufficient to engage the Eginetans, and while they
were begging the Corinthians to lend them some ships, the failure
of the enterprise took place. In those days the Corinthians were on
the best of terms with the Athenians; and accordingly they now yielded
to their request, and furnished them with twenty ships; but, as their
law did not allow the ships to be given for nothing, they sold them
to the Athenians for five drachms apiece. As soon then as the Athenians
had obtained this aid, and, by manning also their own ships, had equipped
a fleet of seventy sail, they crossed over to Egina, but arrived a
day later than the time agreed upon.
Meanwhile Nicodromus, when he found the Athenians did not come to
the time appointed, took ship and made his escape from the island.
The Eginetans who accompanied him were settled by the Athenians at
Sunium, whence they were wont to issue forth and plunder the Eginetans
of the island. But this took place at a later date.
When the wealthier Eginetans had thus obtained the victory over the
common people who had revolted with Nicodromus, they laid hands on
a certain number of them, and led them out to death. But here they
were guilty of a sacrilege, which, notwithstanding all their efforts,
they were never able to atone, being driven from the island before
they had appeased the goddess whom they now provoked. Seven hundred
of the common people had fallen alive into their hands; and they were
all being led out to death, when one of them escaped from his chains,
and flying to the gateway of the temple of Ceres the Lawgiver, laid
hold of the doorhandles, and clung to them. The others sought to drag
him from his refuge; but, finding themselves unable to tear him away,
they cut off his hands, and so took him, leaving the hands still tightly
grasping the handles.
Such were the doings of the Eginetans among themselves. When the Athenians
arrived, they went out to meet them with seventy ships; and a battle
took place, wherein the Eginetans suffered a defeat. Hereupon they
had recourse again to their old allies, the Argives; but these latter
refused now to lend them any aid, being angry because some Eginetan
ships, which Cleomenes had taken by force, accompanied him in his
invasion of Argolis, and joined in the disembarkation. The same thing
had happened at the same time With certain vessels of the Sicyonians;
and the Argives had laid a fine of a thousand talents upon the misdoers,
five hundred upon each: whereupon they of Sicyon acknowledged themselves
to have sinned, and agreed with the Argives to pay them a hundred
talents, and so be quit of the debt; but the Eginetans would make
no acknowledgment at all, and showed themselves proud and stiffnecked.
For this reason, when they now prayed the Argives for aid, the state
refused to send them a single soldier. Notwithstanding, volunteers
joined them from Argos to the number of a thousand, under a captain,
Eurybates, a man skilled in the pentathlic contests. Of these men
the greater part never returned, but were slain by the Athenians in
Egina. Eurybates, their captain, fought a number of single combats,
and, after killing three men in this way, was himself slain by the
fourth, who was a Decelean, named Sophanes.
Afterwards the Eginetans fell upon the Athenian fleet when it was
in some disorder and beat it, capturing four ships with their crews.
Thus did war rage between the Eginetans and Athenians. Meantime the
Persian pursued his own design, from day to day exhorted by his servant
to "remember the Athenians," and likewise urged continually by the
Pisistratidae, who were ever accusing their countrymen. Moreover it
pleased him well to have a pretext for carrying war into Greece, that
so he might reduce all those who had refused to give him earth and
water. As for Mardonius, since his expedition had succeeded so ill,
Darius took the command of the troops from him, and appointed other
generals in his stead, who were to lead the host against Eretria and
Athens; to wit, Datis, who was by descent a Mede, and Artaphernes,
the son of Artaphernes, his own nephew. These men received orders
to carry Athens and Eretria away captive, and to bring the prisoners
into his presence.
So the new commanders took their departure from the court and went
down to Cilicia, to the Aleian plain, having with them a numerous
and wellappointed land army. Encamping here, they were joined by the
sea force which had been required of the several states, and at the
same time by the horsetransports which Darius had, the year before,
commanded his tributaries to make ready. Aboard these the horses were
embarked; and the troops were received by the ships of war; after
which the whole fleet, amounting in all to six hundred triremes, made
sail for Ionia. Thence, instead of proceeding with a straight course
along the shore to the Hellespont and to Thrace, they loosed from
Samos and voyaged across the Icarian sea through the midst of the
islands; mainly, as I believe, because they feared the danger of doubling
Mount Athos, where the year before they had suffered so grievously
on their passage; but a constraining cause also was their former failure
to take Naxos.
When the Persians, therefore, approaching from the Icarian Sea, cast
anchor at Naxos, which, recollecting what there befell them formerly,
they had determined to attack before any other state, the Naxians,
instead of encountering them, took to flight, and hurried off to the
hills. The Persians however succeeded in laying hands on some, and
them they carried away captive, while at the same time they burnt
all the temples together with the town. This done, they left Naxos,
and sailed away to the other islands.
While the Persians were thus employed, the Delians likewise quitted
Delos, and took refuge in Tenos. And now the expedition drew near,
when Datis sailed forward in advance of the other ships; commanding
them, instead of anchoring at Delos, to rendezvous at Rhenea, over
against Delos, while he himself proceeded to discover whither the
Delians had fled; after which he sent a herald to them with this message:
"Why are ye fled, O holy men? Why have ye judged me so harshly and
so wrongfully? I have surely sense enough, even had not the king so
ordered, to spare the country which gave birth to the two gods- to
spare, I say, both the country and its inhabitants. Come back therefore
to your dwellings; and once more inhabit your island."
Such was the message which Datis sent by his herald to the Delians.
He likewise placed upon the altar three hundred talents' weight of
frankincense, and offered it.
After this he sailed with his whole host against Eretria, taking with
him both Ionians and Aeolians. When he was departed, Delos (as the
Delians told me) was shaken by an earthquake, the first and last shock
that has been felt to this day. And truly this was a prodigy whereby
the god warned men of the evils that were coming upon them. For in
the three following generations of Darius the son of Hystaspes, Xerxes
the son of Darius, and Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, more woes befell
Greece than in the twenty generations preceding Darius- woes caused
in part by the Persians, but in part arising from the contentions
among their own chief men respecting the supreme power. Wherefore
it is not surprising that Delos, though it had never before been shaken,
should at that time have felt the shock of an earthquake. And indeed
there was an oracle, which said of Delos-
Delo's self will I shake, which never yet has been shaken Of the above
names Darius may be rendered "Worker," Xerxes "Warrior," and Artaxerxes
"Great Warrior." And so might we call these kings in our own language
with propriety.
The barbarians, after loosing from Delos, proceeded to touch at the
other islands, and took troops from each, and likewise carried off
a number of the children as hostages. Going thus from one to another,
they came at last to Carystus; but here the hostages were refused
by the Carystians, who said they would neither give any, nor consent
to bear arms against the cities of their neighbours, meaning Athens
and Eretria. Hereupon the Persians laid siege to Carystus, and wasted
the country round, until at length the inhabitants were brought over
and agreed to do what was required of them.
Meanwhile the Eretrians, understanding that the Persian armament was
coming against them, besought the Athenians for assistance. Nor did
the Athenians refuse their aid, but assigned to them as auxiliaries
the four thousand landholders to whom they had allotted the estates
of the Chalcidean Hippobatae. At Eretria, however, things were in
no healthy state; for though they had called in the aid of the Athenians,
yet they were not agreed among themselves how they should act; some
of them were minded to leave the city and to take refuge in the heights
of Euboea, while others, who looked to receiving a reward from the
Persians, were making ready to betray their country. So when these
things came to the ears of Aeschines, the son of Nothon, one of the
first men in Eretria, he made known the whole state of affairs to
the Athenians who were already arrived, and besought them to return
home to their own land, and not perish with his countrymen. And the
Athenians hearkened to his counsel, and, crossing over to Oropus,
in this way escaped the danger.
The Persian fleet now drew near and anchored at Tamynae, Choereae,
and Aegilia, three places in the territory of Eretria. Once masters
of these posts, they proceeded forthwith to disembark their horses,
and made ready to attack the enemy. But the Eretrians were not minded
to sally forth and offer battle; their only care, after it had been
resolved not to quit the city, was, if possible, to defend their walls.
And now the fortress was assaulted in good earnest, and for six days
there fell on both sides vast numbers, but on the seventh day Euphorbus,
the son of Alcimachus, and Philagrus, the son of Cyneas, who were
both citizens of good repute, betrayed the place to the Persians.
These were no sooner entered within the walls than they plundered
and burnt all the temples that there were in the town, in revenge
for the burning of their own temples at Sardis; moreover, they did
according to the orders of Darius, and carried away captive all the
inhabitants.
The Persians, having thus brought Eretria into subjection after waiting
a few days, made sail for Attica, greatly straitening the Athenians
as they approached, and thinking to deal with them as they had dealt
with the people of Eretria. And, because there was no Place in all
Attica so convenient for their horse as Marathon, and it lay moreover
quite close to Eretria, therefore Hippias, the son of Pisistratus,
conducted them thither.
When intelligence of this reached the Athenians, they likewise marched
their troops to Marathon, and there stood on the defensive, having
at their head ten generals, of whom one was Miltiades.
Now this man's father, Cimon, the son of Stesagoras, was banished
from Athens by Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates. In his banishment
it was his fortune to win the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia,
whereby he gained the very same honour which had before been carried
off by Miltiades, his half-brother on the mother's side. At the next
Olympiad he won the prize again with the same mares; upon which he
caused Pisistratus to be proclaimed the winner, having made an agreement
with him that on yielding him this honour he should be allowed to
come back to his country. Afterwards, still with the same mares, he
won the prize a third time; whereupon he was put to death by the sons
of Pisistratus, whose father was no longer living. They set men to
lie in wait for him secretly; and these men slew him near the government-house
in the night-time. He was buried outside the city, beyond what is
called the Valley Road; and right opposite his tomb were buried the
mares which had won the three prizes. The same success had likewise
been achieved once previously, to wit, by the mares of Evagoras the
Lacedaemonian, but never except by them. At the time of Cimon's death
Stesagoras, the elder of his two sons, was in the Chersonese, where
he lived with Miltiades his uncle; the younger, who was called Miltiades
after the founder of the Chersonesite colony, was with his father
in Athens.
It was this Miltiades who now commanded the Athenians, after escaping
from the Chersonese, and twice nearly losing his life. First he was
chased as far as Imbrus by the Phoenicians, who had a great desire
to take him and carry him up to the king; and when he had avoided
this danger, and, having reached his own country, thought himself
to be altogether in safety, he found his enemies waiting for him,
and was cited by them before a court and impeached for his tyranny
in the Chersonese. But he came off victorious here likewise, and was
thereupon made general of the Athenians by the free choice of the
people.
And first, before they left the city, the generals sent off to Sparta
a herald, one Pheidippides, who was by birth an Athenian, and by profession
and practice a trained runner. This man, according to the account
which he gave to the Athenians on his return, when he was near Mount
Parthenium, above Tegea, fell in with the god Pan, who called him
by his name, and bade him ask the Athenians "wherefore they neglected
him so entirely, when he was kindly disposed towards them, and had
often helped them in times past, and would do so again in time to
come?" The Athenians, entirely believing in the truth of this report,
as soon as their affairs were once more in good order, set up a temple
to Pan under the Acropolis, and, in return for the message which I
have recorded, established in his honour yearly sacrifices and a torch-race.
On the occasion of which we speak when Pheidippides was sent by the
Athenian generals, and, according to his own account, saw Pan on his
journey, he reached Sparta on the very next day after quitting the
city of Athens- Upon his arrival he went before the rulers, and said
to them:-
"Men of Lacedaemon, the Athenians beseech you to hasten to their aid,
and not allow that state, which is the most ancient in all Greece,
to be enslaved by the barbarians. Eretria, look you, is already carried
away captive; and Greece weakened by the loss of no mean city."
Thus did Pheidippides deliver the message committed to him. And the
Spartans wished to help the Athenians, but were unable to give them
any present succour, as they did not like to break their established
law. It was then the ninth day of the first decade; and they could
not march out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached
the full. So they waited for the full of the moon.
The barbarians were conducted to Marathon by Hippias. the son of Pisistratus,
who the night before had seen a strange vision in his sleep. He dreamt
of lying in his mother's arms, and conjectured the dream to mean that
he would be restored to Athens, recover the power which he had lost,
and afterwards live to a good old age in his native country. Such
was the sense in which he interpreted the vision. He now proceeded
to act as guide to the Persians; and, in the first place, he landed
the prisoners taken from Eretria upon the island that is called Aegileia,
a tract belonging to the Styreans, after which he brought the fleet
to anchor off Marathon, and marshalled the bands of the barbarians
as they disembarked. As he was thus employed it chanced that he sneezed
and at the same time coughed with more violence than was his wont.
Now, as he was a man advanced in years, and the greater number of
his teeth were loose, it so happened that one of them was driven out
with the force of the cough, and fell down into the sand. Hippias
took all the pains he could to find it; but the tooth was nowhere
to be seen: whereupon he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the bystanders:-
"After all, the land is not ours; and we shall never be able to bring
it under. All my share in it is the portion of which my tooth has
possession."
So Hippias believed that in this way his dream was fulfilled.
The Athenians were drawn up in order of battle in a sacred close belonging
to Hercules, when they were joined by the Plataeans, who came in full
force to their aid. Some time before, the Plataeans had put themselves
under the rule of the Athenians; and these last had already undertaken
many labours on their behalf. The occasion of the surrender was the
following. The Plataeans suffered grievous things at the hands of
the men of Thebes; so, as it chanced that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas,
and the Lacedaemonians were in their neighbourhood, they first of
all offered to surrender themselves to them. But the Lacedaemonians
refused to receive them, and said:-
"We dwell too far off from you, and ours would be but chill succour.
Ye might oftentimes be carried into slavery before one of us heard
of it. We counsel you rather to give yourselves up to the Athenians,
who are your next neighbours, and well able to shelter you."
This they said, not so much out of good will towards the Plataeans
as because they wished to involve the Athenians in trouble by engaging
them in wars with the Boeotians. The Plataeans, however, when the
Lacedaemonians gave them this counsel, complied at once; and when
the sacrifice to the Twelve Gods was being offered at Athens, they
came and sat as suppliants about the altar, and gave themselves up
to the Athenians. The Thebans no sooner learnt what the Plataeans
had done than instantly they marched out against them, while the Athenians
sent troops to their aid. As the two armies were about to join battle,
the Corinthians, who chanced to be at hand, would not allow them to
engage; both sides consented to take them for arbitrators, whereupon
they made up the quarrel, and fixed the boundary-line between the
two states upon this condition: to wit, that if any of the Boeotians
wished no longer to belong to Boeotia, the Thebans should allow them
to follow their own inclinations. The Corinthians, when they had thus
decreed, forthwith departed to their homes: the Athenians likewise
set off on their return; but the Boeotians fell upon them during the
march, and a battle was fought wherein they were worsted by the Athenians.
Hereupon these last would not be bound by the line which the Corinthians
had fixed, but advanced beyond those limits, and made the Asopus the
boundary-line between the country of the Thebans and that of the Plataeans
and Hysians. Under such circumstances did the Plataeans give themselves
up to Athens; and now they were come to Marathon to bear the Athenians
aid.
The Athenian generals were divided in their opinions; and some advised
not to risk a battle, because they were too few to engage such a host
as that of the Medes, while others were for fighting at once; and
among these last was Miltiades. He therefore, seeing that opinions
were thus divided, and that the less worthy counsel appeared likely
to prevail, resolved to go to the Polemarch, and have a conference
with him. For the man on whom the lot fell to be Polemarch at Athens
was entitled to give his vote with the ten generals, since anciently
the Athenians allowed him an equal right of voting with them. The
Polemarch at this juncture was Callimachus of Aphidnae; to him therefore
Miltiades went, and said:-
"With thee it rests, Callimachus, either to bring Athens to slavery,
or, by securing her freedom, to leave behind thee to all future generations
a memory beyond even Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For never since the
time that the Athenians became a people were they in so great a danger
as now. If they bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the
woes which they will have to suffer when given into the power of Hippias
are already determined on; if, on the other hand, they fight and overcome,
Athens may rise to be the very first city in Greece. How it comes
to pass that these things are likely to happen, and how the determining
of them in some sort rests with thee, I will now proceed to make clear.
We generals are ten in number, and our votes are divided; half of
us wish to engage, half to avoid a combat. Now, if we do not fight,
I look to see a great disturbance at Athens which will shake men's
resolutions, and then I fear they will submit themselves; but if we
fight the battle before any unsoundness show itself among our citizens,
let the gods but give us fair play, and we are well able to overcome
the enemy. On thee therefore we depend in this matter, which lies
wholly in thine own power. Thou hast only to add thy vote to my side
and thy country will be free, and not free only, but the first state
in Greece. Or, if thou preferrest to give thy vote to them who would
decline the combat, then the reverse will follow."
Miltiades by these words gained Callimachus; and the addition of the
Polemarch's vote caused the decision to be in favour of fighting.
Hereupon all those generals who had been desirous of hazarding a battle,
when their turn came to command the army, gave up their right to Miltiades.
He however, though he accepted their offers, nevertheless waited,
and would not fight until his own day of command arrived in due course.
Then at length, when his own turn was come, the Athenian battle was
set in array, and this was the order of it. Callimachus the Polemarch
led the right wing; for it was at that time a rule with the Athenians
to give the right wing to the Polemarch. After this followed the tribes,
according as they were numbered, in an unbroken line; while last of
all came the Plataeans, forming the left wing. And ever since that
day it has been a custom with the Athenians, in the sacrifices and
assemblies held each fifth year at Athens, for the Athenian herald
to implore the blessing of the gods on the Plataeans conjointly with
the Athenians. Now, as they marshalled the host upon the field of
Marathon, in order that the Athenian front might he of equal length
with the Median, the ranks of the centre were diminished, and it became
the weakest part of the line, while the wings were both made strong
with a depth of many ranks.
So when the battle was set in array, and the victims showed themselves
favourable, instantly the Athenians, so soon as they were let go,
charged the barbarians at a run. Now the distance between the two
armies was little short of eight furlongs. The Persians, therefore,
when they saw the Greeks coming on at speed, made ready to receive
them, although it seemed to them that the Athenians were bereft of
their senses, and bent upon their own destruction; for they saw a
mere handful of men coming on at a run without either horsemen or
archers. Such was the opinion of the barbarians; but the Athenians
in close array fell upon them, and fought in a manner worthy of being
recorded. They were the first of the Greeks, so far as I know, who
introduced the custom of charging the enemy at a run, and they were
likewise the first who dared to look upon the Median garb, and to
face men clad in that fashion. Until this time the very name of the
Medes had been a terror to the Greeks to hear.
The two armies fought together on the plain of Marathon for a length
of time; and in the mid battle, where the Persians themselves and
the Sacae had their place, the barbarians were victorious, and broke
and pursued the Greeks into the inner country; but on the two wings
the Athenians and the Plataeans defeated the enemy. Having so done,
they suffered the routed barbarians to fly at their ease, and joining
the two wings in one, fell upon those who had broken their own centre,
and fought and conquered them. These likewise fled, and now the Athenians
hung upon the runaways and cut them down, chasing them all the way
to the shore, on reaching which they laid hold of the ships and called
aloud for fire.
It was in the struggle here that Callimachus the Polemarch, after
greatly distinguishing himself, lost his life; Stesilaus too, the
son of Thrasilaus, one of the generals, was slain; and Cynaegirus,
the son of Euphorion, having seized on a vessel of the enemy's by
the ornament at the stern, had his hand cut off by the blow of an
axe, and so perished; as likewise did many other Athenians of note
and name.
Nevertheless the Athenians secured in this way seven of the vessels;
while with the remainder the barbarians pushed off, and taking aboard
their Eretrian prisoners from the island where they had left them,
doubled Cape Sunium, hoping to reach Athens before the return of the
Athenians. The Alcmaeonidae were accused by their countrymen of suggesting
this course to them; they had, it was said, an understanding with
the Persians, and made a signal to them, by raising a shield, after
they were embarked in their ships.
The Persians accordingly sailed round Sunium. But the Athenians with
all possible speed marched away to the defence of their city, and
succeeded in reaching Athens before the appearance of the barbarians:
and as their camp at Marathon had been pitched in a precinct of Hercules,
so now they encamped in another precinct of the same god at Cynosarges.
The barbarian fleet arrived, and lay to off Phalerum, which was at
that time the haven of Athens; but after resting awhile upon their
oars, they departed and sailed away to Asia.
There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the barbarians,
about six thousand and four hundred men; on that of the Athenians,
one hundred and ninety-two. Such was the number of the slain on the
one side and the other. A strange prodigy likewise happened at this
fight. Epizelus, the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick
of the fray, and behaving himself as a brave man should, when suddenly
he was stricken with blindness, without blow of sword or dart; and
this blindness continued thenceforth during the whole of his after
life. The following is the account which he himself, as I have heard,
gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic warrior, with a huge beard,
which shaded all his shield, stood over against him; but the ghostly
semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his side. Such, as I
understand, was the tale which Epizelus told.
Datis meanwhile was on his way back to Asia, and had reached Myconus,
when he saw in his sleep a vision. What it was is not known; but no
sooner was day come than he caused strict search to be made throughout
the whole fleet, and finding on board a Phoenician vessel an image
of Apollo overlaid with gold, he inquired from whence it had been
taken, and learning to what temple it belonged, he took it with him
in his own ship to Delos, and placed it in the temple there, enjoining
the Delians, who had now come back to their island, to restore the
image to the Theban Delium, which lies on the coast over against Chalcis.
Having left these injunctions, he sailed away; but the Delians failed
to restore the statue; and it was not till twenty years afterwards
that the Thebans, warned by an oracle, themselves brought it back
to Delium.
As for the Eretrians, whom Datis and Artaphernes had carried away
captive, when the fleet reached Asia, they were taken up to Susa.
Now King Darius, before they were made his prisoners, nourished a
fierce anger against these men for having injured him without provocation;
but now that he saw them brought into his presence, and become his
subjects, he did them no other harm, but only settled them at one
of his own stations in Cissia- a place called Ardericea- two hundred
and ten furlongs distant from Susa, and forty from the well which
yields produce of three different kinds. For from this well they get
bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now describe:
they draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket make use of the half
of a wine-skin; with this the man dips, and after drawing, pours the
liquid into a reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another, and there
takes three different shapes. The salt and the bitumen forthwith collect
and harden, while the oil is drawn off into casks. It is called by
the Persians "rhadinace," is black, and has an unpleasant smell. Here
then King Darius established the Eretrians; and here they continued
to my time, and still spoke their old language. So thus it fared with
the Eretrians.
After the full of the moon two thousand Lacedaemonians came to Athens.
So eager had they been to arrive in time, that they took but three
days to reach Attica from Sparta. They came, however, too late for
the battle; yet, as they had a longing to behold the Medes, they continued
their march to Marathon and there viewed the slain. Then, after giving
the Athenians all praise for their achievement, they departed and
returned home. But it fills me with wonderment, and I can in no wise
believe the report, that the Alcmaeonidae had an understanding with
the Persians, and held them up a shield as a signal, wishing Athens
to be brought under the yoke of the barbarians and of Hippias- the
Alcmaeonidae, who have shown themselves at least as bitter haters
of tyrants as was Callias, the son of Phaenippus, and father of Hipponicus.
This Callias was the only person at Athens who, when the Pisistratidae
were driven out, and their goods were exposed for sale by the vote
of the people, had the courage to make purchases, and likewise in
many other ways to display the strongest hostility.
He was a man very worthy to be had in remembrance by all, on several
accounts. For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond others
in the cause of his country's freedom; but likewise, by the honours
which he gained at the Olympic Games, where he carried off the prize
in the horse-race, and was second in the four-horse chariot-race,
and by his victory at an earlier period in the Pythian Games, he showed
himself in the eyes of all the Greeks a man most unsparing in his
expenditure. He was remarkable too for his conduct in respect of his
daughters, three in number; for when they came to be of marriageable
age, he gave to each of them a most ample dowry, and placed it at
their own disposal, allowing them to choose their husbands from among
all the citizens of Athens, and giving each in marriage to the man
of her own choice.
Now the Alcmaeonidae fell not a whit short of this person in their
hatred of tyrants, so that I am astonished at the charge made against
them, and cannot bring myself to believe that they held up a shield;
for they were men who had remained in exile during the whole time
that the tyranny lasted, and they even contrived the trick by which
the Pisistratidae were deprived of their throne. Indeed I look upon
them as the persons who in good truth gave Athens her freedom far
more than Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For these last did but exasperate
the other Pisistratidae by slaying Hipparchus, and were far from doing
anything towards putting down the tyranny: whereas the Alcmaeonidae
were manifestly the actual deliverers of Athens, if at least it be
true that the Pythoness was prevailed upon by them to bid the Lacedaemonians
set Athens free, as I have already related.
But perhaps they were offended with the people of Athens; and therefore
betrayed their country. Nay, but on the contrary there were none of
the Athenians who were held in such general esteem, or who were so
laden with honours. So that it is not even reasonable to suppose that
a shield was held up by them on this account. A shield was shown,
no doubt; that cannot be gainsaid; but who it was that showed it I
cannot any further determine.
Now the Alcmaeonidae were, even in days of yore, a family of note
at Athens; but from the time of Alcmaeon, and again of Megacles, they
rose to special eminence. The former of these two personages, to wit,
Alcmaeon, the son of Megacles, when Croesus the Lydian sent men from
Sardis to consult the Delphic oracle, gave aid gladly to his messengers,
assisted them to accomplish their task. Croesus, informed of Alcmaeon's
kindnesses by the Lydians who from time to time conveyed his messages
to the god, sent for him to Sardis, and when he arrived, made him
a present of as much gold as he should be able to carry at one time
about his person. Finding that this was the gift assigned him, Alcmaeon
took his measures, and prepared himself to receive it in the following
way. He clothed himself in a loose tunic, which he made to bag greatly
at the waist, and placing upon his feet the widest buskins that he
could anywhere find, followed his guides into the treasure-house.
Here he fell to upon a heap of gold-dust, and in the first place packed
as much as he could inside his buskins, between them and his legs;
after which he filled the breast of his tunic quite full of gold,
and then sprinkling some among his hair, and taking some likewise
in his mouth, he came forth from the treasure-house, scarcely able
to drag his legs along, like anything rather than a man, with his
mouth crammed full, and his bulk increased every way. On seeing him,
Croesus burst into a laugh, and not only let him have all that he
had taken, but gave him presents besides of fully equal worth. Thus
this house became one of great wealth; and Alcmaeon was able to keep
horses for the chariot-race, and won the prize at Olympia.
Afterwards, in the generation which followed, Clisthenes, king of
Sicyon, raised the family to still greater eminence among the Greeks
than even that to which it had attained before. For this Clisthenes,
who was the son of Aristonymus, the grandson of Myron, and the great-grandson
of Andreas, had a daughter, called Agarista, whom he wished to marry
to the best husband that he could find in the whole of Greece. At
the Olympic Games, therefore, having gained the prize in the chariot
race, he caused public proclamation to be made to the following effect:-
"Whoever among the Greeks deems himself worthy to become the son-in-law
of Clisthenes, let him come, sixty days hence, or, if he will, sooner,
to Sicyon; for within a year's time, counting from the end of the
sixty days, Clisthenes will decide on the man to whom he shall contract
his daughter." So all the Greeks who were proud of their own merit
or of their country flocked to Sicyon as suitors; and Clisthenes had
a foot-course and a wrestling-ground made ready, to try their powers.
From Italy there came Smindyrides, the son of Hippocrates, a native
of Sybaris- which city about that time was at the very height of its
prosperity. He was a man who in luxuriousness of living exceeded all
other persons. Likewise there came Damasus, the son of Amyris, surnamed
the Wise, a native of Siris. These two were the only suitors from
Italy. From the Ionian Gulf appeared Amphimnestus, the son of Epistrophus,
an Epidamnian; from Aetolia, Males, the brother of that Titormus who
excelled all the Greeks in strength, and who wishing to avoid his
fellow-men, withdrew himself into the remotest parts of the Aetolian
territory. From the Peloponnese came several- Leocedes, son of that
Pheidon, king of the Argives, who established weights and measures
throughout the Peloponnese, and was the most insolent of all the Grecians-
the same who drove out the Elean directors of the Games, and himself
presided over the contests at Olympia- Leocedes, I say, appeared,
this Pheidon's son; and likewise Amiantus, son of Lycurgus, an Arcadian
of the city of Trapezus; Laphanes, an Azenian of Paeus, whose father,
Euphorion, as the story goes in Arcadia, entertained the Dioscuri
at his residence, and thenceforth kept open house for all comers;
and lastly, Onomastus, the son of Agaeus, a native of Elis. These
four came from the Peloponnese. From Athens there arrived Megacles,
the son of that Alcmaeon who visited Croesus, and Tisander's son,
Hippoclides, the wealthiest and handsomest of the Athenians. There
was likewise one Euboean, Lysanias, who came from Eretria, then a
flourishing city. From Thessaly came Diactorides, a Cranonian, of
the race of the Scopadae; and Alcon arrived from the Molossians. This
was the list of the suitors.
Now when they were all come, and the day appointed had arrived, Clisthenes
first of all inquired of each concerning his country and his family;
after which he kept them with him a year, and made trial of their
manly bearing, their temper, their accomplishments, and their disposition,
sometimes drawing them apart for converse, sometimes bringing them
all together. Such as were still youths he took with him from time
to time to the gymnasia; but the greatest trial of all was at the
banquettable. During the whole period of their stay he lived with
them as I have said; and, further, from first to last he entertained
them sumptuously. Somehow or other the suitors who came from Athens
pleased him the best of all; and of these Hippoclides, Tisander's
son, was specially in favour, partly on account of his manly bearing,
and partly also because his ancestors were of kin to the Corinthian
Cypselids.
When at length the day arrived which had been fixed for the espousals,
and Clisthenes had to speak out and declare his choice, he first of
all made a sacrifice of a hundred oxen, and held a banquet, whereat
he entertained all the suitors and the whole people of Sicyon. After
the feast was ended, the suitors vied with each other in music and
in speaking on a given subject. Presently, as the drinking advanced,
Hippoclides, who quite dumbfoundered the rest, called aloud to the
flute-player, and bade him strike up a dance; which the man did, and
Hippoclides danced to it. And he fancied that he was dancing excellently
well; but Clisthenes, who was observing him, began to misdoubt the
whole business. Then Hippoclides, after a pause, told an attendant
to bring in a table; and when it was brought, he mounted upon it and
danced first of all some Laconian figures, then some Attic ones; after
which he stood on his head upon the table, and began to toss his legs
about. Clisthenes, notwithstanding that he now loathed Hippoclides
for a son-in-law, by reason of his dancing and his shamelessness,
still, as he wished to avoid an outbreak, had restrained himself during
the first and likewise during the second dance; when, however, he
saw him tossing his legs in the air, he could no longer contain himself,
but cried out, "Son of Tisander, thou hast danced thy wife away!"
"What does Hippoclides care?" was the other's answer. And hence the
proverb arose.
Then Clisthenes commanded silence, and spake thus before the assembled
company:-
"Suitors of my daughter, well pleased am I with you all; and right
willingly, if it were possible, would I content you all, and not by
making choice of one appear to put a slight upon the rest. But as
it is out of my power, seeing that I have but one daughter, to grant
to all their wishes, I will present to each of you whom I must needs
dismiss a talent of silver, for the honour that you have done me in
seeking to ally yourselves with my house, and for your long absence
from your homes. But my daughter, Agarista, I betroth to Megacles,
the son of Alcmaeon, to be his wife, according to the usage and wont
of Athens."
Then Megacles expressed his readiness; and Clisthenes had the marriage
solemnised.
Thus ended the affair of the suitors; and thus the Alcmaeonidae came
to be famous throughout the whole of Greece. The issue of this marriage
was the Clisthenes named after his grandfather the Sicyonian- who
made the tribes at Athens, and set up the popular government. Megacles
had likewise another son, called Hippocrates, whose children were
a Megacles and an Agarista, the latter named after Agarista the daughter
of Clisthenes. She married Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron; and when
she was with child by him had a dream, wherein she fancied that she
was delivered of a lion; after which, within a few days, she bore
Xanthippus a son, to wit, Pericles.
After the blow struck at Marathon, Miltiades, who was previously held
in high esteem by his countrymen, increased yet more in influence.
Hence, when he told them that he wanted a fleet of seventy ships,
with an armed force, and money, without informing them what country
he was going to attack, but only promising to enrich them if they
would accompany him, seeing that it was a right wealthy land, where
they might easily get as much gold as they cared to have- when he
told them this, they were quite carried away, and gave him the whole
armament which he required.
So Miltiades, having got the armament, sailed against Paros, with
the object, as he alleged, of punishing the Parians for having gone
to war with Athens, inasmuch as a trireme of theirs had come with
the Persian fleet to Marathon. This, however, was a mere pretence;
the truth was, that Miltiades owed the Parians a grudge, because Lysagoras,
the son of Tisias, who was a Parian by birth, had told tales against
him to Hydarnes the Persian. Arrived before the place against which
his expedition was designed, he drove the Parians within their walls,
and forthwith laid siege to the city. At the same time he sent a herald
to the inhabitants, and required of them a hundred talents, threatening
that, if they refused, he would press the siege, and never give it
over till the town was taken. But the Parians, without giving his
demand a thought, proceeded to use every means that they could devise
for the defence of their city, and even invented new plans for the
purpose, one of which was, by working at night, to raise such parts
of the wall as were likely to be carried by assault to double their
former height.
Thus far all the Greeks agree in their accounts of this business;
what follows is related upon the testimony of the Parians only. Miltiades
had come to his wit's end, when one of the prisoners, a woman named
Timo, who was by birth a Parian, and had held the office of under-priestess
in the temple of the infernal goddesses, came and conferred with him.
This woman, they say, being introduced into the presence of Miltiades,
advised him, if he set great store by the capture of the place, to
do something which she could suggest to him. When therefore she had
told him what it was she meant, he betook himself to the hill which
lies in front of the city, and there leapt the fence enclosing the
precinct of Ceres Thesmophorus, since he was not able to open the
door. After leaping into the place he went straight to the sanctuary,
intending to do something within it- either to remove some of the
holy things which it was not lawful to stir, or to perform some act
or other, I cannot say what- and had just reached the door, when suddenly
a feeling of horror came upon him, and he returned back the way he
had come; but in jumping down from the outer wall, he strained his
thigh, or, as some say, struck the ground with his knee.
So Miltiades returned home sick, without bringing the Athenians any
money, and without conquering Paros, having done no more than to besiege
the town for six-and-twenty days, and ravage the remainder of the
island. The Parians, however, when it came to their knowledge that
Timo, the under-priestess of the goddesses, had advised Miltiades
what he should do, were minded to punish her for her crime; they therefore
sent messengers to Delphi, as soon as the siege was at an end, and
asked the god if they should put the under-priestess to death. "She
had discovered," they said, "to the enemies of her country how they
might bring it into subjection, and had exhibited to Miltiades mysteries
which it was not lawful for a man to know." But the Pythoness forbade
them, and said, "Timo was not in fault; 'twas decreed that Miltiades
should come to an unhappy end; and she was sent to lure him to his
destruction." Such was the answer given to the Parians by the Pythoness.
The Athenians, upon the return of Miltiades from Paros, had much debate
concerning him; and Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, who spoke more
freely against him than all the rest, impleaded him before the people,
and brought him to trial for his life, on the charge of having dealt
deceitfully with the Athenians. Miltiades, though he was present in
court, did not speak in his own defence; for his thigh had begun to
mortify, and disabled him from pleading his cause. He was forced to
lie on a couch while his defence was made by his friends, who dwelt
at most length on the fight at Marathon, while they made mention also
of the capture of Lemnos, telling how Miltiades took the island, and,
after executing vengeance on the Pelasgians, gave up his conquest
to Athens. The judgment of the people was in his favour so far as
to spare his life; but for the wrong he had done them they fined him
fifty talents. Soon afterwards his thigh completely gangrened and
mortified: and so Miltiades died; and the fifty talents were paid
by his son Cimon.
Now the way in which Miltiades had made himself master of Lemnos was
the following. There were certain Pelasgians whom the Athenians once
drove out of Attica; whether they did it- justly or unjustly I cannot
say, since I only know what is reported concerning it, which is the
following: Hecataeus, the son of Hegesander, says in his History that
it was unjustly. "The Athenians," according to him, "had given to
the Pelasgi a tract of land at the foot of Hymettus as payment for
the wall with which the Pelasgians had surrounded their citadel. This
land was barren, and little worth at the time; but the Pelasgians
brought it into good condition; whereupon the Athenians begrudged
them the tract, and desired to recover it. And so, without any better
excuse, they took arms and drove out the Pelasgians." But the Athenians
maintain that they were justified in what they did. "The Pelasgians,"
they say, "while they lived at the foot of Hymettus, were wont to
sally forth from that region and commit outrages on their children.
For the Athenians used at that time to send their sons and daughters
to draw water at the fountain called 'the Nine Springs,' inasmuch
as neither they nor the other Greeks had any household slaves in those
days; and the maidens, whenever they came, were used rudely and insolently
by the Pelasgians. Nor were they even content thus; but at the last
they laid a plot, and were caught by the Athenians in the act of making
an attempt upon their city. Then did the Athenians give a proof how
much better men they were than the Pelasgians; for whereas they might
justly have killed them all, having caught them in the very act of
rebelling, the; spared their lives, and only required that they should
leave the country. Hereupon the Pelasgians quitted Attica, and settled
in Lemnos and other places." Such are the accounts respectively of
Hecataeus and the Athenians.
These same Pelasgians, after they were settled in Lemnos, conceived
the wish to be revenged on the Athenians. So, as they were well acquainted
with the Athenian festivals, they manned some penteconters, and having
laid an ambush to catch the Athenian women as they kept the festival
of Diana at Brauron, they succeeded in carrying off a large number,
whom they took to Lemnos and there kept as concubines. After a while
the women bore children, whom they taught to speak the language of
Attica and observe the manners of the Athenians. These boys refused
to have any commerce with the sons of the Pelasgian women; and if
a Pelasgian boy struck one of their number, they all made common cause,
and joined in avenging their comrade; nay, the Greek boys even set
up a claim to exercise lordship over the others, and succeeded in
gaining the upper hand. When these things came to the ears of the
Pelasgians, they took counsel together, and, on considering the matter,
they grew frightened, and said one to another, "If these boys even
now are resolved to make common cause against the sons of our lawful
wives, and seek to exercise lordship over them, what may we expect
when they grow up to be men?" Then it seemed good to the Pelasgians
to kill all the sons of the Attic women; which they did accordingly,
and at the same time slew likewise their mothers. From this deed,
and that former crime of the Lemnian women, when they slew their husbands
in the days of Thoas, it has come to be usual throughout Greece to
call wicked actions by the name of "Lemnian deeds."
When the Pelasgians had thus slain their children and their women,
the earth refused to bring forth its fruits for them, and their wives
bore fewer children, and their flocks and herds increased more slowly
than before, till at last, sore pressed by famine and bereavement,
they sent men to Delphi, and begged the god to tell them how they
might obtain deliverance from their sufferings. The Pythoness answered
that "they must give the Athenians whatever satisfaction they might
demand." Then the Pelasgians went to Athens and declared their wish
to give the Athenians satisfaction for the wrong which they had done
to them. So the Athenians had a couch prepared in their townhall,
and adorned it with the fairest coverlets, and set by its side a table
laden with all manner of good things, and then told the Pelasgians
they must deliver up their country to them in a similar condition.
The Pelasgians answered and said, "When a ship comes with a north
wind from your country to ours in a single day, then will we give
it up to you." This they said because they knew that what they required
was impossible, for Attica lies a long way to the south of Lemnos.
No more passed at that time. But very many years afterwards, when
the Hellespontian Chersonese had been brought under the power of Athens,
Miltiades, the son of Cimon, sailed, during the prevalence of the
Etesian winds, from Elaeus in the Chersonese to Lemnos, and called
on the Pelasgians to quit their island, reminding them of the prophecy
which they had supposed it impossible to fulfil. The people of Hephaestia
obeyed the call; but they of Myrina, not acknowledging the Chersonese
to be any part of Attica, refused and were besieged and brought over
by force. Thus was Lemnos gained by the Athenians and Miltiades.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK VII
Polymnia
Now when tidings of the battle that had been fought at Marathon reached
the ears of King Darius, the son of Hystaspes, his anger against the
Athenians, which had been already roused by their attack upon Sardis,
waxed still fiercer, and he became more than ever eager to lead an
army against Greece. Instantly he sent off messengers to make proclamation
through the several states that fresh levies were to be raised, and
these at an increased rate; while ships, horses, provisions, and transports
were likewise to be furnished. So the men published his commands;
and now all Asia was in commotion by the space of three years, while
everywhere, as Greece was to be attacked, the best and bravest were
enrolled for the service, and had to make their preparations accordingly.
After this, in the fourth year, the Egyptians whom Cambyses had enslaved
revolted from the Persians; whereupon Darius was more hot for war
than ever, and earnestly desired to march an army against both adversaries.
Now, as he was about to lead forth his levies against Egypt and Athens,
a fierce contention for the sovereign power arose among his sons;
since the law of the Persians was that a king must not go out with
his army, until he has appointed one to succeed him upon the throne.
Darius, before he obtained the kingdom, had had three sons born to
him from his former wife, who was a daughter of Gobryas; while, since
he began to reign, Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, had borne him four.
Artabazanes was the eldest of the first family, and Xerxes of the
second. These two, therefore, being the sons of different mothers,
were now at variance. Artabazanes claimed the crown as the eldest
of all the children, because it was an established custom all over
the world for the eldest to have the pre-eminence; while Xerxes, on
the other hand, urged that he was sprung from Atossa, the daughter
of Cyrus, and that it was Cyrus who had won the Persians their freedom.
Before Darius had pronounced on the matter, it happened that Demaratus,
the son of Ariston, who had been deprived of his crown at Sparta,
and had afterwards, of his own accord, gone into banishment, came
up to Susa, and there heard of the quarrel of the princes. Hereupon,
as report says, he went to Xerxes, and advised him, in addition to
all that he had urged before, to plead- that at the time when he was
born Darius was already king, and bore rule over the Persians; but
when Artabazanes came into the world, he was a mere private person.
It would therefore be neither right nor seemly that the crown should
go to another in preference to himself. "For at Sparta," said Demaratus,
byway of suggestion, "the law is that if a king has sons before he
comes to the throne, and another son is born to him afterwards, the
child so born is heir to his father's kingdom." Xerxes followed this
counsel, and Darius, persuaded that he had justice on his side, appointed
him his successor. For my own part I believe that, even without this,
the crown would have gone to Xerxes; for Atossa was all-powerful.
Darius, when he had thus appointed Xerxes his heir, was minded to
lead forth his armies; but he was prevented by death while his preparations
were still proceeding. He died in the year following the revolt of
Egypt and the matters here related, after having reigned in all six-and-thirty
years, leaving the revolted Egyptians and the Athenians alike unpunished.
At his death the kingdom passed to his son Xerxes.
Now Xerxes, on first mounting the throne, was coldly disposed towards
the Grecian war, and made it his business to collect an army against
Egypt. But Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, who was at the court, and
had more influence with him than any of the other Persians, being
his own cousin, the child of a sister of Darius, plied him with discourses
like the following:-
"Master, it is not fitting that they of Athens escape scot-free, after
doing the Persians such great injury. Complete the work which thou
hast now in hand, and then, when the pride of Egypt is brought low,
lead an army against Athens. So shalt thou thyself have good report
among men, and others shall fear hereafter to attack thy country."
Thus far it was of vengeance that he spoke; but sometimes he would
vary the theme, and observe by the way, "that Europe was a wondrous
beautiful region, rich in all kinds of cultivated trees, and the soil
excellent: no one, save the king, was worthy to own such a land."
All this he said, because he longed for adventures, and hoped to become
satrap of Greece under the king; and after a while he had his way,
and persuaded Xerxes to do according to his desires. Other things,
however, occurring about the same time, helped his persuasions. For,
in the first place, it chanced that messengers arrived from Thessaly,
sent by the Aleuadae, Thessalian kings, to invite Xerxes into Greece,
and to promise him all the assistance which it was in their power
to give. And further, the Pisistratidae, who had come up to Susa,
held the same language as the Aleuadae, and worked upon him even more
than they, by means of Onomacritus of Athens, an oracle-monger, and
the same who set forth the prophecies of Musaeus in their order. The
Pisistratidae had previously been at enmity with this man, but made
up the quarrel before they removed to Susa. He was banished from Athens
by Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, because he foisted into the
writings of Musaeus a prophecy that the islands which lie off Lemnos
would one day disappear in the sea. Lasus of Hermione caught him in
the act of so doing. For this cause Hipparchus banished him, though
till then they had been the closest of friends. Now, however, he went
up to Susa with the sons of Pisistratus, and they talked very grandly
of him to the king; while he, for his part, whenever he was in the
king's company, repeated to him certain of the oracles; and while
he took care to pass over all that spoke of disaster to the barbarians,
brought forward the passages which promised them the greatest success.
"'Twas fated," he told Xerxes, "that a Persian should bridge the Hellespont,
and march an army from Asia into Greece." While Onomacritus thus plied
Xerxes with his oracles, the Pisistratidae and Aleuadae did not cease
to press on him their advice, till at last the king yielded, and agreed
to lead forth an expedition.
First, however, in the year following the death of Darius, he marched
against those who had revolted from him; and having reduced them,
and laid all Egypt under a far harder yoke than ever his father had
put upon it, he gave the government to Achaeamenes, who was his own
brother, and son to Darius. This Achaeamenes was afterwards slain
in his government by Inaros, the son of Psammetichus, a Libyan.
(SS 1.) After Egypt was subdued, Xerxes, being about to take in hand
the expedition against Athens, called together an assembly of the
noblest Persians to learn their opinions, and to lay before them his
own designs. So, when the men were met, the king spake thus to them:-
"Persians, I shall not be the first to bring in among you a new custom-
I shall but follow one which has come down to us from our forefathers.
Never yet, as our old men assure me, has our race reposed itself,
since the time when Cyrus overcame Astyages, and so we Persians wrested
the sceptre from the Medes. Now in all this God guides us; and we,
obeying his guidance, prosper greatly. What need have I to tell you
of the deeds of Cyrus and Cambyses, and my own father Darius, how
many nations they conquered, and added to our dominions? Ye know right
well what great things they achieved. But for myself, I will say that,
from the day on which I mounted the throne, I have not ceased to consider
by what means I may rival those who have preceded me in this post
of honour, and increase the power of Persia as much as any of them.
And truly I have pondered upon this, until at last I have found out
a way whereby we may at once win glory, and likewise get possession
of a land which is as large and as rich as our own nay, which is even
more varied in the fruits it bears- while at the same time we obtain
satisfaction and revenge. For this cause I have now called you together,
that I may make known to you what I design to do. (SS 2.) My intent
is to throw a bridge over the Hellespont and march an army through
Europe against Greece, that thereby I may obtain vengeance from the
Athenians for the wrongs committed by them against the Persians and
against my father. Your own eyes saw the preparations of Darius against
these men; but death came upon him, and balked his hopes of revenge.
In his behalf, therefore, and in behalf of all the Persians, I undertake
the war, and pledge myself not to rest till I have taken and burnt
Athens, which has dared, unprovoked, to injure me and my father. Long
since they came to Asia with Aristagoras of Miletus, who was one of
our slaves, and, entering Sardis, burnt its temples and its sacred
groves; again, more lately, when we made a landing upon their coast
under Datis and Artaphernes, how roughly they handled us ye do not
need to be told. (SS 3.) For these reasons, therefore, I am bent upon
this war; and I see likewise therewith united no few advantages. Once
let us subdue this people, and those neighbours of theirs who hold
the land of Pelops the Phrygian, and we shall extend the Persian territory
as far as God's heaven reaches. The sun will then shine on no land
beyond our borders; for I will pass through Europe from one end to
the other, and with your aid make of all the lands which it contains
one country. For thus, if what I hear be true, affairs stand: the
nations whereof I have spoken, once swept away, there is no city,
no country left in all the world, which will venture so much as to
withstand us in arms. By this course then we shall bring all mankind
under our yoke, alike those who are guilty and those who are innocent
of doing us wrong. (SS 4.) For yourselves, if you wish to please me,
do as follows: when I announce the time for the army to meet together,
hasten to the muster with a good will, every one of you; and know
that to the man who brings with him the most gallant array I will
give the gifts which our people consider the most honourable. This
then is what ye have to do. But to show that I am not self-willed
in this matter, I lay the business before you, and give you full leave
to speak your minds upon it openly."
Xerxes, having so spoken, held his peace.
(SS 1.) Whereupon Mardonius took the word, and said: "Of a truth,
my lord, thou dost surpass, not only all living Persians, but likewise
those yet unborn. Most true and right is each word that thou hast
now uttered; but best of all thy resolve not to let the Ionians who
live in Europe- a worthless crew- mock us any more. It were indeed
a monstrous thing if, after conquering and enslaving the Sacae, the
Indians, the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, and many other mighty nations,
not for any wrong that they had done us, but only to increase our
empire, we should then allow the Greeks, who have done us such wanton
injury, to escape our vengeance. What is it that we fear in them?-
not surely their numbers?- not the greatness of their wealth? We know
the manner of their battle- we know how weak their power is; already
have we subdued their children who dwell in our country, the Ionians,
Aeolians, and Dorians. I myself have had experience of these men when
I marched against them by the orders of thy father; and though I went
as far as Macedonia, and came but a little short of reaching Athens
itself, yet not a soul ventured to come out against me to battle.
(SS 2.) And yet, I am told, these very Greeks are wont to wage wars
against one another in the most foolish way, through sheer perversity
and doltishness. For no sooner is war proclaimed than they search
out the smoothest and fairest plain that is to be found in all the
land, and there they assemble and fight; whence it comes to pass that
even the conquerors depart with great loss: I say nothing of the conquered,
for they are destroyed altogether. Now surely, as they are all of
one speech, they ought to interchange heralds and messengers, and
make up their differences by any means rather than battle; or, at
the worst, if they must needs fight one against another, they ought
to post themselves as strongly as possible, and so try their quarrels.
But, notwithstanding that they have so foolish a manner of warfare,
yet these Greeks, when I led my army against them to the very borders
of Macedonia, did not so much as think of offering me battle. (SS
3.) Who then will dare, O king! to meet thee in arms, when thou comest
with all Asia's warriors at thy back, and with all her ships? For
my part I do not believe the Greek people will be so foolhardy. Grant,
however, that I am mistaken herein, and that they are foolish enough
to meet us in open fight; in that case they will learn that there
are no such soldiers in the whole world as we. Nevertheless let us
spare no pains; for nothing comes without trouble; but all that men
acquire is got by painstaking."
When Mardonius had in this way softened the harsh speech of Xerxes,
he too held his peace.
(SS 1.) The other Persians were silent; all feared to raise their
voice against the plan proposed to them. But Artabanus, the son of
Hystaspes, and uncle of Xerxes, trusting to his relationship, was
bold to speak:- "O king!" he said, "it is impossible, if no more than
one opinion is uttered, to make choice of the best: a man is forced
then to follow whatever advice may have been given him; but if opposite
speeches are delivered, then choice can be exercised. In like manner
pure gold is not recognised by itself; but when we test it along with
baser ore, we perceive which is the better. I counselled thy father,
Darius, who was my own brother, not to attack the Scyths, a race of
people who had no town in their whole land. He thought however to
subdue those wandering tribes, and would not listen to me, but marched
an army against them, and ere he returned home lost many of his bravest
warriors. Thou art about, O king! to attack a people far superior
to the Scyths, a people distinguished above others both by land and
sea. 'Tis fit therefore that I should tell thee what danger thou incurrest
hereby. (SS 2.) Thou sayest that thou wilt bridge the Hellespont,
and lead thy troops through Europe against Greece. Now suppose some
disaster befall thee by land or sea, or by both. It may be even so;
for the men are reputed valiant. Indeed one may measure their prowess
from what they have already done; for when Datis and Artaphernes led
their huge army against Attica, the Athenians singly defeated them.
But grant they are not successful on both elements. Still, if they
man their ships, and, defeating us by sea, sail to the Hellespont,
and there destroy our bridge- that, sire, were a fearful hazard. (SS
3.) And here 'tis not by my own mother wit alone that I conjecture
what will happen; but I remember how narrowly we escaped disaster
once, when thy father, after throwing bridges over the Thracian Bosphorus
and the Ister, marched against the Scythians, and they tried every
sort of prayer to induce the Ionians, who had charge of the bridge
over the Ister, to break the passage. On that day, if Histiaeus, the
king of Miletus, had sided with the other princes, and not set himself
to oppose their views, the empire of the Persians would have come
to nought. Surely a dreadful thing is this even to hear said, that
the king's fortunes depended wholly on one man.
(SS 4.) "Think then no more of incurring so great a danger when no
need presses, but follow the advice I tender. Break up this meeting,
and when thou hast well considered the matter with thyself, and settled
what thou wilt do, declare to us thy resolve. I know not of aught
in the world that so profits a man as taking good counsel with himself;
for even if things fall out against one's hopes, still one has counselled
well, though fortune has made the counsel of none effect: whereas
if a man counsels ill and luck follows, he has gotten a windfall,
but his counsel is none the less silly. (SS 5.) Seest thou how God
with his lightning smites always the bigger animals, and will not
suffer them to wax insolent, while those of a lesser bulk chafe him
not? How likewise his bolts fall ever on the highest houses and the
tallest trees? So plainly does He love to bring down everything that
exalts itself. Thus ofttimes a mighty host is discomfited by a few
men, when God in his jealousy sends fear or storm from heaven, and
they perish in a way unworthy of them. For God allows no one to have
high thoughts but Himself. (SS 6.) Again, hurry always brings about
disasters, from which huge sufferings are wont to arise; but in delay
lie many advantages, not apparent (it may be) at first sight, but
such as in course of time are seen of all. Such then is my counsel
to thee, O king!
(SS 7.) "And thou, Mardonius, son of Gobryas, forbear to speak foolishly
concerning the Greeks, who are men that ought not to be lightly esteemed
by us. For while thou revilest the Greeks, thou dost encourage the
king to lead his own troops against them; and this, as it seems to
me, is what thou art specially striving to accomplish. Heaven send
thou succeed not to thy wish! For slander is of all evils the most
terrible. In it two men do wrong, and one man has wrong done to him.
The slanderer does wrong, forasmuch as he abuses a man behind his
back; and the hearer, forasmuch as he believes what he has not searched
into thoroughly. The man slandered in his absence suffers wrong at
the hands of both: for one brings against him a false charge; and
the other thinks him an evildoer. (SS 8.) If, however, it must needs
be that we go to war with this people, at least allow the king to
abide at home in Persia. Then let thee and me both stake our children
on the issue, and do thou choose out thy men, and, taking with thee
whatever number of troops thou likest, lead forth our armies to battle.
If things go well for the king, as thou sayest they will, let me and
my children be put to death; but if they fall out as I prophesy, let
thy children suffer, and thyself too, if thou shalt come back alive.
But shouldest thou refuse this wager, and still resolve to march an
army against Greece, sure I am that some of those whom thou leavest
behind thee here will one day receive the sad tidings that Mardonius
has brought a great disaster upon the Persian people, and lies a prey
to dogs and birds somewhere in the land of the Athenians, or else
in that of the Lacedaemonians; unless indeed thou shalt have perished
sooner by the way, experiencing in thy own person the might of those
men on whom thou wouldest fain induce the king to make war."
Thus spake Artabanus. But Xerxes, full of wrath, replied to him:-
"Artabanus, thou art my father's brother- that shall save thee from
receiving the due meed of thy silly words. One shame however I will
lay upon thee, coward and faint-hearted as thou art- thou shalt not
come with me to fight these Greeks, but shalt tarry here with the
women. Without thy aid I will accomplish all of which I spake. For
let me not be thought the child of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the
son of Arsames, the son of Ariaramnes, the son of Teispes, the son
of Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, the son of Teispes, the son of Achaemenes,
if I take not vengeance on the Athenians. Full well I know that, were
we to remain at rest, yet would not they, but would most certainly
invade our country, if at least it be right to judge from what they
have already done; for, remember, it was they who fired Sardis and
attacked Asia. So now retreat is on both sides impossible, and the
choice lies between doing and suffering injury; either our empire
must pass under the dominion of the Greeks, or their land become the
prey of the Persians; for there is no middle course left in this quarrel.
It is right then that we, who have in times past received wrong, should
now avenge it, and that I should thereby discover what that great
risk is which I run in marching against these men- men whom Pelops
the Phrygian, a vassal of my forefathers, subdued so utterly, that
to this day both the land, and the people who dwell therein, alike
bear the name of the conqueror!"
Thus far did the speaking proceed. Afterwards evening fell; and Xerxes
began to find the advice of Artabanus greatly disquiet him. So he
thought upon it during the night, and concluded at last that it was
not for his advantage to lead an army into Greece. When he had thus
made up his mind anew, he fell asleep. And now he saw in the night,
as the Persians declare, a vision of this nature- he thought a tall
and beautiful man stood over him and said, "Hast thou then changed
thy mind, Persian, and wilt thou not lead forth thy host against the
Greeks, after commanding the Persians to gather together their levies?
Be sure thou doest not well to change; nor is there a man here who
will approve thy conduct. The course that thou didst determine on
during the day, let that be followed." After thus speaking the man
seemed to Xerxes to fly away.
Day dawned; and the king made no account of this dream, but called
together the same Persians as before, and spake to them as follows:-
"Men of Persia, forgive me if I alter the resolve to which I came
so lately. Consider that I have not yet reached to the full growth
of my wisdom, and that they who urge me to engage in this war leave
me not to myself for a moment. When I heard the advice of Artabanus,
my young blood suddenly boiled; and I spake words against him little
befitting his years: now however I confess my fault, and am resolved
to follow his counsel. Understand then that I have changed my intent
with respect to carrying war into Greece, and cease to trouble yourselves."
When they heard these words, the Persians were full of joy, and, falling
down at the feet of Xerxes, made obeisance to him.
But when night came, again the same vision stood over Xerxes as he
slept, and said, "Son of Darius, it seems thou hast openly before
all the Persians renounced the expedition, making light of my words,
as though thou hadst not heard them spoken. Know therefore and be
well assured, that unless thou go forth to the war, this thing shall
happen unto thee thou art grown mighty and puissant in a short space,
so likewise shalt thou within a little time be brought low indeed."
Then Xerxes, greatly frightened at the vision which he had seen, sprang
from his couch, and sent a messenger to call Artabanus, who came at
the summons, when Xerxes spoke to him in these words:-
"Artabanus, at the moment I acted foolishly, when I gave thee ill
words in return for thy good advice. However it was not long ere I
repented, and was convinced that thy counsel was such as I ought to
follow. But I may not now act in this way, greatly as I desire to
do so. For ever since I repented and changed my mind a dream has haunted
me, which disapproves my intentions, and has now just gone from me
with threats. Now if this dream is sent to me from God, and if it
is indeed his will that our troops should march against Greece, thou
too wilt have the same dream come to thee and receive the same commands
as myself. And this will be most sure to happen, I think, if thou
puttest on the dress which I am wont to wear, and then, after taking
thy seat upon my throne, liest down to sleep on my bed."
Such were the words of Xerxes. Artabanus would not at first yield
to the command of the king; for he deemed himself unworthy to sit
upon the royal throne. At the last however he was forced to give way,
and did as Xerxes bade him; but first he spake thus to the king (SS
1.):-
"To me, sire, it seems to matter little whether a man is wise himself
or willing to hearken to such as give good advice. In thee truly are
found both but the counsels of evil men lead thee astray: they are
like the gales of wind which vex the sea- else the most useful thing
for man in the whole world- and suffer it not to follow the bent of
its own nature. For myself, it irked me not so much to be reproached
by thee, as to observe that when two courses were placed before the
Persian people, one of a nature to increase their pride, the other
to humble it, by showing them how hurtful it is to allow one's heart
always to covet more than one at present possesses, thou madest choice
of that which was the worse both for thyself and for the Persians.
(SS 2.) Now thou sayest that from the time when thou didst approve
the better course, and give up the thought of warring against Greece,
a dream has haunted thee, sent by some god or other, which will not
suffer thee to lay aside the expedition. But such things, my son,
have of a truth nothing divine in them. The dreams that wander to
and fro among mankind, I will tell thee of what nature they are- I
who have seen so many more years than thou. Whatever a man has been
thinking of during the day is wont to hover round him in the visions
of his dreams at night. Now we during these many days past have had
our hands full of this enterprise. (SS 3.) If however the matter be
not as I suppose, but God has indeed some part therein, thou hast
in brief declared the whole that can be said concerning it- let it
e'en appear to me as it has to thee, and lay on me the same injunctions.
But it ought not to appear to me any the more if I put on thy clothes
than if I wear my own, nor if I go to sleep in thy bed than if I do
so in mine- supposing, I mean, that it is about to appear at all.
For this thing, be it what it may, that visits thee in thy sleep,
surely is not so far gone in folly as to see me, and because I am
dressed in thy clothes, straightway to mistake me for thee. Now however
our business is to see if it will regard me as of small account, and
not vouchsafe to appear to me, whether I wear mine own clothes or
thine, while it keeps on haunting thee continually. If it does so,
and appears often, I should myself say that it was from God. For the
rest, if thy mind is fixed, and it is not possible to turn thee from
thy design, but I must needs go and sleep in thy bed, well and good,
let it be even so; and when I have done as thou wishest, then let
the dream appear to me. Till such time, however, I shall keep to my
former opinion."
Thus spake Artabanus; and when he had so said, thinking to show Xerxes
that his words were nought, he did according to his orders. Having
put on the garments which Xerxes was wont to wear and taken his seat
upon the royal throne, he lay down to sleep upon the king's own bed.
As he slept, there appeared to him the very same dream which had been
seen by Xerxes; it came and stood over Artabanus, and said:-
"Thou art the man, then, who, feigning to be tender of Xerxes, seekest
to dissuade him from leading his armies against the Greeks! But thou
shalt not escape scathless, either now or in time to come, because
thou hast sought to prevent that which is fated to happen. As for
Xerxes, it has been plainly told to himself what will befall him,
if he refuses to perform my bidding."
In such words, as Artabanus thought, the vision threatened him, and
then endeavoured to burn out his eyes with red-hot irons. At this
he shrieked, and, leaping from his couch, hurried to Xerxes, and,
sitting down at his side, gave him a full account of the vision; after
which he went on to speak in the words which follow:-
"I, O King! am a man who have seen many mighty empires overthrown
by weaker ones; and therefore it was that I sought to hinder thee
from being quite carried away by thy youth; since I knew how evil
a thing it is to covet more than one possesses. I could remember the
expedition of Cyrus against the Massagetae, and what was the issue
of it; I could recollect the march of Cambyses against the Ethiops;
I had taken part in the attack of Darius upon the Scyths-bearing therefore
all these things in mind, I thought with myself that if thou shouldst
remain at peace, all men would deem thee fortunate. But as this impulse
has plainly come from above, and a heaven-sent destruction seems about
to overtake the Greeks, behold, I change to another mind, and alter
my thoughts upon the matter. Do thou therefore make known to the Persians
what the god has declared, and bid them follow the orders which were
first given, and prepare their levies. Be careful to act so that the
bounty of the god may not be hindered by slackness on thy part."
Thus spake these two together; and Xerxes, being in good heart on
account of the vision, when day broke, laid all before the Persians;
while Artabanus, who had formerly been the only person openly to oppose
the expedition, now showed as openly that he favoured it.
After Xerxes had thus determined to go forth to the war, there appeared
to him in his sleep yet a third vision. The Magi were consulted upon
it, and said that its meaning reached to the whole earth, and that
all mankind would become his servants. Now the vision which the king
saw was this: he dreamt that he was crowned with a branch of an olive
tree, and that boughs spread out from the olive branch and covered
the whole earth; then suddenly the garland, as it lay upon his brow,
vanished. So when the Magi had thus interpreted the vision, straightway
all the Persians who were come together departed to t